MANAMA, 7 August 2006 — Bahrainis marched in the old part of the capital yesterday to mark the passing of one week of the Israeli attack on the village of Qana that left 56 people, including at least 34 children, dead.
The protesters waved Hezbollah flags and raised pictures of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as they condemned the United States and Israel and what they described as the silence of the UN and the international community in the face of carnage in Lebanon and Gaza.
“Nasrallah has said that Hezbollah is willing to stop firing rockets on Israeli villages and towns if the Israelis stopped doing so in Lebanon,” pointed out Hayat Al-Alawi who took part in the protest. “It is not acceptable to allow the Israelis to bombard the whole country killing hundreds of civilians while the world watches. If they kill civilians then they should expect the same in return.”
Her views were echoed by Mohsan Al-Maqdad who said that Hezbollah was fighting on the fronts and accused the Israelis of trying to use the “scorched earth” tactics to target civilians and scare them.
“Today Hezbollah killed 12 soldiers in battle and the Israelis will respond by targeting civilians in Lebanon and the world will in turn accuse Muslims and Arabs of being terrorists and murderers,” Al-Maqdad said. “When did it become a crime to capture and kill soldiers who are occupying your land and spreading daily terror against your people?”
Al-Maqdad repeated calls to withdraw the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres in 1994. “His role in the 1996 Qana attack is too well-known. He was the Israeli prime minister then. He is in an important position this time as well when Qana II was perpetrated.”
“It (the Nobel Peace Prize) should not have been awarded to him in the first place,” he said. “He is a war criminal and he should be prosecuted as such, not awarded peace prizes.”
More than 50 people died in Qana in an Israeli night air strike on July 30, which demolished a three-story building killing the civilians who were taking shelter inside of it.
The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) initially said that Hezbollah was firing rockets from behind the building, but later confirmed that no rockets had been fired from that area on the night of the incident.
The IDF nonetheless holds Hezbollah responsible for all civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict claiming that the group had been using civilians as human shields.
