[11][15] The Israel Defence Forces (IDF), although it admitted striking the building, initially denied that the explosion that caused the mass deaths were the result of their attack.

[16] According to the IDF, the bombing was an attempt to stop Katyusha rockets supposedly being fired by Hezbollah into northern Israel from the village over a two-week period[17] and said residents were warned to leave.

The aerial attack killed members of the Shalhoub and Hashem families who had used an underground garage below a three-story apartment building as a shelter during the bombing.

[23] Anthony Shadid, reporting for the Washington Post, described the scene he saw that day: "Most of the dead had choked on flying dirt and other debris.

"[24] The Christian Science Monitor reported that further airstrikes and artillery attacks, which destroyed several houses in Qana, delayed the rescue response.

[29][30] Responding to the incident, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora denounced "Israeli war criminals" and canceled talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In a television address to the country, he said, "There is no place on this sad morning for any discussion other than an immediate and unconditional cease-fire as well as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres.

In a statement, the Security Council expressed the world body's "extreme shock and distress" at the Qana bombing and offered its condolences for the deaths.

[32] In Israel, thousands joined in protests on July 30, most of them in the Arab village of Umm al-Fahm, but also including hundreds of Gush Shalom and Meretz supporters in separate demonstrations in Tel Aviv, and smaller numbers in Haifa and the Galilee.

On July 31, in response to global criticism, Israel agreed to suspend air strikes over southern Lebanon for up to 48 hours, which would allow for further civilian evacuations from the area, as well as investigation of the incident but said it would not refrain from responding to imminent threats.

Qana's strategic location at the confluence of five major roadways and on the northern edge of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon may have contributed as to its repeatedly being caught in the crossfire.

[16] An elderly man who survived the strike said a Hezbollah device could not be the cause of the explosion, since Israeli destruction of local infrastructure made it impossible that weaponries be moved towards the building.

[46][47][48][49] In its report on civilian casualties during the war, however, independent researchers at Human Rights Watch concluded that there was no evidence that Hezbollah fired at Israel from populated areas.

[50] The Christian Science Monitor likewise found Hezbollah fighters launched their rockets at Israel from unpopulated areas that they declared no-go zones to Lebanese civilians.

"[52] According to Human Rights Watch, though many civilians in South Lebanon refused to abandon their homes and act on the IDF's warnings, many others were unable to flee due to crumbled infrastructure.

[53] Israel singled out much of Lebanese civilian infrastructure for destruction throughout the war[54] and at the end of the conflict the damage was estimated to top 2.5 billion dollars.

The official confirmed an earlier announcement by U.S. State Department spokesman Adam Ereli, who said the bombing halt should "significantly speed and improve the flow of humanitarian aid.

[59] On August 6, the BBC News reported that in a second attack in Qana, the IDF destroyed the Hezbollah rocket launchers in the village used against targets in Haifa, Israel.

Human Rights Watch also added that its own researchers, who visited Qana on July 31, the day after the attack, did not find any destroyed military equipment in or near the house.

"[57] The statement accused Hezbollah of using human shields and claimed that the IDF "operated according to information that 'the building was not inhabited by civilians and was being used as a hiding place for terrorists.'

"[57] The IDF did not explicitly take responsibility for the casualties, but Halutz was quoted as saying that he "expressed his sorrow for the deaths of civilians, among them children, in the incident in Qana".

"[69] Human Rights Watch likewise called for an independent international inquiry, saying that the IDF's report did not explain the attack, that it in effect raised more questions than it answered, and that it contradicted eyewitness accounts of the timing, which denied legitimate military targets were around the building.

[70] On August 6 the IDF announced that a missile launcher located in the area of Qana which had fired rockets into Haifa was later destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.