Jerusalem: An Israeli inquiry into the bombing of the Lebanese village of Qana on Thursday said the army would not have bombed a building if had known civilians were inside, but accused Hezbollah of using human shields. The strike on Qana last Saturday drew international outrage and intensified calls for a ceasefire.
Lebanon says at least 54 people were killed, many of them children. A Human Rights Watch investigation said the toll appeared lower.
A statement said the probe was completed on Wednesday. It said the building was attacked with two missiles, one of which did not explode, because it was believed to be a ''hiding place for terrorists''.
''Had the information indicated that civilians were present in the building the attack would not have been carried out,'' the statement said, adding that residents of Qana and surrounding villages had been warned several times to leave their homes.
The statement said Lt General Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, again expressed sorrow for the deaths. ''The Hezbollah organisation places Lebanese civilians as a defensive shield between itself and us while the army places itself as a defensive shield between the citizens of Israel and Hezbollah's terror,'' he said.
''That is the main difference between us.'' The US-based watchdog Human Rights Watch said late yesterday that the bodies of 28 people killed in Qana had been recovered and 13 people were missing. The official Lebanese toll is 54.
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