In the year 1996 Shelling of Qana – On April 18, 1996, amid heavy fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hezbollah during “Operation Grapes of Wrath”, a Fijian UNIFIL compound in the village was shelled by Israeli artillery, killing 106 civilians and injuring around 116 others who had taken refuge there to escape the fighting. Four UNIFIL soldiers were also seriously injured.
In the bloodiest attack by far on this eighth day of Israeli aggression, over 105 civilians were massacred after Israeli artillery pounded a UNIFIL warehouse packed with refugees. The hundreds of men, women and children were seeking shelter from Israeli bombardment with the U.N. in the village of Qana. U.N. spokesman Timur Goksel said the U.N. station, manned by Fijian troops, came under fierce attack this afternoon. The U.N. is airlifting by helicopter the dead and injured to hospitals in nearby Tyre and further up the coast to Sidon. Details remain sketchy because U.N. officials at the main administrative offices at Naqora are reporting communication problems with their Fijian battalion and the road in the area is closed because of heavy Israeli shelling. Once again, over 100 Lebanese civilians are dead tonight as a result of Israeli missile attacks on a refugee center at a United Nations’ peace keeping base in the village of Qana, southeast of Tyre.
Foreign Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel would continue the bombardment despite the massacre.
On Tuesday April 18, 1996 Israeli 155mm howitzers shelled UIFIL’s Fiji BATT compound in the village of Qana a few kilometers south east of Tyre. Around 800 civilians had taken refuge at the base. Israelis targeted the base in retaliation for the Hizballah attack on one of their special forces groups who were in action north and outside of the Iraeli occupied “security zone” laying landmines. Over 100 civilians were killed.