Nearly three weeks into Israel's campaign against the Islamist militias of Hizbullah in Lebanon, hopes for a diplomatic breakthrough leading to an early ceasefire were badly dented when Israel's air force dropped bombs on a building in the small town of Qana, 12km (eight miles) north of the border. Israel said militants who had just fired a Katyusha rocket had taken refuge in the building. But, as had been the case ten years ago when Israel had shelled a un compound in Qana in reply—it said—to Hizbullah fire, dozens of civilians were sheltering there too. The death toll of at least 28, including 16 children, was not only the worst so far in this war; it knocked diplomatic efforts to find a solution askew.
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