QANA, Lebanon - (Associated Press) An Israeli airstrike killed at least 56 people, including at least 34 children, in a southern Lebanese village Sunday, the Lebanese Red Cross said. Lebanese security officials put the toll at 57 dead. Security officials said the toll rose dramatically after 18 people from two families were found in a single room of the building, where dozens of people had been taking refuge from the fighting. The missiles destroyed several homes in the village of Qana as people were sleeping.

Israeli said it targeted Qana because it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israeli, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday.

Rescuers aided by villagers dug through the rubble by hand. At least 20 bodies wrapped in white sheets were taken away, including 10 children. A row of houses lay in ruins, and an old woman was carried away on a plastic chair.

Villagers said many of the dead were from four families who had taken refuge in on the ground floor of a three-story building, believing they would be safe from bombings.

"We want this to stop!" shouted Mohammed Ismail, a middle-aged man pulling away at the rubble in search for bodies, his brown pants covered in dust. "May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting."

"They are hitting children to bring the fighters to their knees," he said.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Saniora said Lebanon would be open only to an immediate cease-fire. "There is no place at this sad moment for any discussions other than an immediate and unconditional cease-fire as well as international investigation of the Israeli massacres in Lebanon now," he told reporters Sunday.

More than 5,000 people protested in central Beirut, denouncing Israel and the United States, some chanting, "Destroy Tel Aviv, destroy Tel Aviv." A few broke car windows and tried briefly to break into the main U.N. building until political leaders called for a halt to damage. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr questioned Israel's claim that Hezbollah fired rockets from the village. "What do you expect Israel to say? Will it say that it killed 40 children and women?" he told Al-Jazeera television.

Qana, in the hills east of the southern port city of Tyre, has a bloody history. In 1996, Israeli artillery killed more than 100 civilians who had taken refuge at a U.N. base in the village. That attack sparked an international outcry that helped end an Israeli offensive.

The attack drew swift condemnation from several world leaders. French President Jacques Chirac's office said "France condemns this unjustifiable action, which shows more than ever the need to move toward an immediate cease-fire, without which other such dramas can only be repeated." Jordan's King Abdullah II condemned "the ugly crime perpetrated by Israeli forces in Qana," calling it "a blatant violation of the law and all international conventions."

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BEIRUT (AFP) - Angry Lebanese protestors have stormed the building of the United Nations in Beirut, smashing glass doors and hacking at the furniture in rage at



After the violent protest at UN headquarters, thousands of people -- some in tears and others shouting angry slogans -- converged from both Christian and Muslim areas of the capital on Riad Solh Square where the building is located.

After hearing news of the carnage in Qana which killed 51 people, including 25 children, a group of protestors attacked and briefly occupied the UN House in downtown Beirut where they smashed windows, burned curtains and destroyed furniture. A small group of protestors burned an American flag while shouting: "Death to America."

"Feltman out now!" demonstrators also shouted, referring to US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman. "Thank you America for your smart bombs, on behalf of our slain children," read one banner carried by the protestors, most of whom were also raising Lebanese flags. Activists also waved flags of several parties, including the yellow standard of Hezbollah. "Dear (Hassan) Nasrallah, strike Tel Aviv," they chanted, addressing the head of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah which has met Israeli attacks with fierce resistance for the past 19 days, firing rockets into northern Israel.

A group of youths hoisted the Hezbollah flag on one of the poles outside the building. Inside, demonstrators smashed the electronic announcement screen positioned at the entrance of the UN premises.

More than 500 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli bombardments since the Jewish state launched a massive offensive on Lebanon after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers at the borders on July 12 in an attempt to secure an exchange of prisoners.

Qana was also the site of an Israeli bombing of a UN base on April 18, 1996 that killed 105 people who had taken refuge there during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive -- another operation aimed at wiping out Hezbollah.

The demonstration in central Beirut only calmed down after Hezbollah militants forced protestors to leave the UN House and Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri appealed to them to disperse and not attack any building. "I call on my people and brothers and on the youngsters demonstrating outside the ESCWA (UN building) to desist from any demonstration and any attack on any building," he said on the Arab television channel Al-Jazeera. He urged them "to return from where they came and to give the whole world a chance to stand by us without any distortion (of Lebanon's image)".

Civil Defence workers with the bodies of two children slain by Israeli missiles in Qana. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

Medical personnel line up bodies outside the Tyre (Soure) hospital after an Israeli air raid on Qana killed more than 54 people, 37 of them children, in south Lebanon, July 30, 2006. Photo Ali Hashisho - LEBANON/Reuters