Procession Honors Lebanese Victims

With chants of grief filling the air, 90 wooden coffins were passed hand-over-hand above a frenzied crowd of mourners Tuesday at the mass burial of refugees who died in an Israeli missile attack on a U.N. base.

The procession began with a mass funeral in the coastal city of Tyre, evoking a solidarity seldom seen among Lebanon’s Muslims and Christians. Israel’s 16-day offensive against the Shiite Muslim guerrillas of Hezbollah unified a country long tormented by its religious and political diversity.

Sheik Mohammed Shamseddine, Lebanon’s top Shiite cleric, told mourners: “The Jews have committed a holocaust in Lebanon.”

While Qana wept for the men, women and children killed in the April 18 bombardment, Israeli forces and Lebanese guerrillas had their first serious exchange of fire since a cease-fire took effect Saturday. There was no immediate word on casualties.