Leb grief over slain children

Israel faced international condemnation yesterday for an air strike on a UN post in southern Lebanon that left four peacekeepers dead, as talks on the Middle East crisis broke up with no headway towards a ceasefire.

But Jerusalem attempted to fend off the rebukes following the deaths of the four UN observers, who came from Austria, Canada, Finland and China.

Beijing summoned the Israeli ambassador to demand an apology. “The Chinese side is deeply shocked and strongly condemns this,” Liu Jianchao, a foreign ministry spokesman, said.

The Irish government summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest after its most senior soldier serving with the UN mission in Lebanon said he had called the Israeli military six times to warn of the proximity of their bombardment to the UN compound.

UN officials in New York and Lebanon also repeatedly protested to Israel that the patrol base was coming under fire in the hours before an Israeli bomb levelled it, Jane Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, told the UN Security Council.

After contact with the base was lost, the UN force then won safe passage for two armoured personnel carriers to evacuate the position, Ms Lute said. They arrived at 9:30pm “and found the shelter collapsed and major damage to the rest of the position”.

Despite negotiating safe passage, those vehicles also came under Israeli attack, she said.

Hezbollah isn’t going down anytime soon. If the US does call for a ceasefire, I’ll be surprised if Israel agrees, bombs or no bombs. Backing off now would give Hezbollah the victory in Arab eyes, and there’s no way Israel is going to let that happen.