Our roving cameraman (NOT al-reuters) took the following photo of Saniora's weeping hissy fit at the ROP foreign ministers meeting:
Posted on 08/07/2006 6:00:17 AM PDT by janetjanet998
BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli attack on a Lebanese border village killed more than 40 people Monday, the prime minister said, raising the day's death toll to 55 in heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas despite efforts toward a cease-fire.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora repeatedly broke into tears as he disclosed the attack during opening remarks at a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Beirut. He appealed to fellow Arab states to help a nation "stunned" by a nearly four-week Israeli onslaught that has devastated Lebanon's infrastructure and left hundreds of civilians dead.
Saniora said the attack occurred in the village of Houla, where heavy ground fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli has been raging in recent days. The Israel army said it is checking the claims about Houla but repeated that residents in villages in southern Lebanon had been warned to leave.
Local TV stations also had reported that about 40 people were buried under the rubble of houses that collapsed after being targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
"An hour ago, there was a horrific massacre in the village of Houla in which more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing," he said.
Saniora had to interrupt his remarks several times to choke back tears and wipe his eyes. The ministers broke into applause.
Saniora ripped Israel's attacks, saying: "If these horrific actions are not state terrorism then what is state terrorism?"
He said Israel's attacks took "our country back decades. We are still in the middle of the shock."
The announcement came as Israeli warplanes repeatedly bombed Beirut's southern suburbs and pounded other areas of Lebanon, killing at least 15 people earlier Monday. Fierce fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon also killed one soldier, the Israeli army said.
Both sides appeared to take advantage of the days before a cease-fire resolution, formulated by the U.S. and France, is expected to be put to a vote in the U.N. Security Council. Hezbollah rocket launched its deadliest rocket barrage on Israel on Sunday, killing 12 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
The Arab foreign ministers were meeting in Beirut to show solidarity with Lebanon's government and its people.
Seven people were killed when a missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of the port city of Tyre, civil defense official Youssef Khairallah said. A woman and her daughter were killed in an attack near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir, security officials said. Four other people were killed in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit.
Air raids on the town of Ghaziyeh also destroyed several buildings, killing at least one person and wounding 14, hospital officials said.
A building collapsed on its residents in the village of Ghassaniyeh, and at least one body was retrieved from under the rubble. Witnesses and civil defense workers at the scene said six more people were buried under the rubble but that could not be confirmed.
Five air raids struck the market town of Nabatiyeh, targeting two office buildings, a house and one of the offices of Shiite Muslim Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah. No casualties were reported there or in raids on the villages of Jibsheet and Toul.
Attacks also were carried out in Naqoura on the border and Ras al-Biyada, about half way between Naqoura and Tyre.
Meanwhile, one Israeli soldier was killed and four were lightly wounded in fighting in Bint Jbail, the army said. It said five Hezbollah gunmen were killed in the battle.
Hezbollah also claimed to have killed four Israeli soldiers in heavy ground fighting in Houla in southern Lebanon. But the Israeli army said only three were moderately wounded there.
The air raids, which were particularly intense in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of the capital.
The U.N. plan would call for an immediate halt in the fighting, followed by a second resolution in a week or two that would authorize an international military force and creation of a buffer zone in south Lebanon. It also says the two Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be released unconditionally. The soldiers' capture July 12 triggered the war.
Washington and Paris were expected to circulate a new draft of the first resolution at the United Nations on Monday, taking into account some of the amendments proposed by Qatar, the only Arab nation on the Security Council, and other members, diplomats said.
Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon the U.S.-French draft was good for Israel — but the country still had military goals and would continue its attacks on Hezbollah. While Hezbollah has not issued an outright rejection of the plan, its two main allies — Syria and Iran — said it was without merit because it did not call for an immediate Israeli withdrawal, among other demands.
Lebanon's parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, also said the plan was unacceptable because it does not deal with Beirut's other key demands — a release of prisoners held by Israel and moves to resolve a dispute over a piece of border territory.
In other violence Monday, Israeli warplanes hit roads in the Bekaa Valley, a northeastern region of Lebanon that is a symbol of Hezbollah power. At least four explosions were heard around the city of Baalbek, about 60 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said. The Israeli military confirmed that it had hit several targets in the area. There was no immediate word on casualties.
Warplanes also struck a large factory for construction materials just south of Baalbek, and several trucks belonging to the plant were destroyed.
Jet fighters attacked the Rashaya region farther south on the corridor linking southern regions with the Bekaa Valley in the country's east, the witnesses said. A road near the Beirut border post at Masnaa on the Beirut-Damascus highway, a frequent target of attack, was hit again early Monday.
In Israel, the Haaretz daily, quoting an unnamed general, reported Monday that Israel might step up attacks on Lebanese infrastructure and target symbols of the government in response to Hezbollah's escalating rocket attacks. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly blasted Palestinian government buildings during a month-long offensive in Gaza that began shortly before the clashes with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has fired more than 3,000 rockets at Israel since the fighting began, Israeli officials said. Dozens of rockets hit Israel on Sunday, including some that reached Haifa — Israel's third-largest city — killing three civilians and wounding dozens.
I can't wait to see the staged and doctored photos.
40, 80, 20
yeah, whatever
"more than 40 martyrs were victims of deliberate bombing"
If they were martyrs, they had to be killed. They have been validated.
When you hop into bed with the bad guys you often get your butt kicked along with them. (Old Chinese saying)
Saniora phony idiot, had no problem with massmurdering terrorists stetting up shop in "his" country. What an idiot.
2880 more virgins on order.
}:-)4
Fox New Intl just had the story of the Adnan Hajj photo that was doctored for Al Reuters, but the didn'r mention that Hajj also did the Qana photos, nor that thye were ALSO disputed to be staged!
VERY DISAPPOINTING FOR FOX NEWS SLOPPY REPORTING.
This is what happens during war. People get killed and things are broken. As General Lemay put it:
"I'll tell you what war is about... you've got to kill people, and when you've killed enough they stop fighting."
I agree, these people have way to much leisure time. If they could somehow be forced to spend 23 hours a day trying to feed themselves then they would have a lot less time to hate Jews or the U.S. or anyone else for that matter.
God will sort them out.
Baalbek Bob is a Lebanese comedian...
Isreal is breaking many "rocketky" things..
Hizboallahsters are not "people"... but dress like them..
This guy's full of crap. If he's truly worried about an "onslaught", why not order the Lebanese army to defend his country against the invaders? Because we all know the IDF would mop the floor with them. And why don't the Hezbos fire their 1000s of rockets at the IDF "onslaught"? Because they'd rather slaughter kids in their homes in Haifa. The Hezzies and the Leb pols are cowards and murderers. And the western media side with them by printing this crap.
Well Green Helmet Guy's schedule should be pretty tight today.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said one person died in an airstrike on the village of Houla, after tearfully telling a meeting of the Arab League that more than 40 people died in the bombing.
or not.
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