The Palestinian Fatah movement which is headed by President Mahmoud Abbas condemned on Monday a deadly Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese village of Qana as a "massacre."

Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman slammed the Israeli strike which killed over 50 Lebanese civilians as a failure of the Israeli military operation in Lebanon.

"Qana massacre proved the failure of the Israeli military operation against the Lebanese resistance," said Abdel Rahman, referring to the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.

He also told the local radio "Voice of Palestine" that Israel targeted the innocent in an attempt to "divide the Lebanese national front."

The spokesman also voiced Fatah's support for and solidarity with Hezbollah, saying, "What Hezbollah does is a legitimate right against Israel, which is the first enemy for the humankind."

More than 50 Lebanese civilians, most of them children, were killed in the Israeli airstrike on Qana on early Monday, drawing international condemnation and stepped-up calls for a ceasefire.

The massive Israeli assault in Lebanon entered the 20th day on Monday since it started on July 12 following the abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

On another front, Israel continued an over-one-month-old large- scale air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in a bid to free an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants and halt Palestinian rocket fire.

Source: Xinhua