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TACTICS: Israel Suspending Lebanon Air
Raids After Dozens Die
By STEVEN ERLANGER and
HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: July 31, 2006
Link: Israel Suspends Bombing For 48 Hours
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Story…
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html
JERUSALEM, Monday, July 31 — Israel agreed to suspend air attacks in southern Lebanon for 48 hours after one of its raids on the southern town of Qana left dozens of civilians, many of them children, dead on Sunday, the bloodiest day of the conflict so far.
Israel said the Qana raid was aimed at Hezbollah fighters firing rockets into Israel from the area, but the strike collapsed a residential apartment building, crushing Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter for the night in the basement.
There were different accounts of the death toll. Residents said as many as 60 people had been inside. News agencies reported that 56 had been killed, and that 34 of them were children. The Lebanese Red Cross, which conducted the rescue, counted 27 bodies, as many of 17 of them children. The youngest of the dead was 10 months old, and the oldest was 95. One was in a wheelchair.
… snip…
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html
See Full
Story… JERUSALEM,
Monday, July 31 — Taken aback by the carnage from the
Israeli bombing of Qana, Lebanon, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice wrung the first significant concession from
Israel late on Sunday in its nearly three-week-old war
against the Hezbollah militia: an immediate 48-hour
suspension of aerial strikes. Especially notable about the
suspension was that Ms. Rice’s deputy, Adam Ereli, and not
the Israelis, announced it after she held intensive talks
with both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Israeli foreign
minister, Tzipi Livni. The American decision to break the
news on what was essentially an Israeli tactical change
reflected the increased concern in the Bush administration
about the rising civilian death toll in Lebanon and the
havoc it is wreaking with America’s already shaky
relations with the Arab world. Indeed, while Mr. Ereli
took pains to assure reporters that American officials had
confirmation of the temporary suspension directly from Mr.
Olmert’s office, Israeli officials had said nothing
publicly about the suspension as of early Monday. … snip
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NEWS ANALYIS: From Carnage in
Lebanon, a Concession
By HELENE
COOPER
Published: July 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/world/middleeast/31diplo.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html