Ten-year-old Hanan Mussa learnt something at school Thursday that she will never forget for the rest of her life -- the real meaning of war in southern Lebanon. She is one of the 20 pupils of the school in the southern Lebanese village of Arab Salim, injured by shrapnel from Israeli shells that smashed into the two-story building. Peace talks may be underway between Syria and Israel, but Hanan said she doesn't know anything about them, whimpering as she held her hand to her injured eye. The school in Arab Salim, a village of 8,000 inhabitants, is a mere 600

meters (yards) away from the position of the Israeli-allied militia at Sueida on the edge of the Israeli-occupied zone of southern Lebanon. The headmaster, Afif Nureddin, recalled how his school, with its 500 pupils ranging from kindergarten to school leaving age, came under Israeli fire four months ago.

That time no-one was hurt. "Today, they wanted to shell the peace process," he said. Shrapnel from the two cluster shells which hit the school playground in the middle of the morning shattered the windows and walls of eight class rooms, including four belonging to the kindergarten, where the pupils, aged between four and 13, were working. The injured were taken to the nearby town of Nabatiyeh, where hospital sources said four were seriously hurt. Mohammad Farhat, one of the teachers, said panic broke out when a first shell exploded some distance away. "Just afterwards, a second shell hit the perimeter wall, and the children started rushing round in all directions, screaming," he said. "A few moments later, a tremendous explosion made the walls shake and filled the classrooms with black smoke. It was total chaos, and all we could hear was the children crying and howling." "There was a van standing in the playground, so I shoved five of the injured children into it and drove them to
Nabatiyeh," he said. There were splashes of blood on the floor and on the desks, and on the books and papers that lay scattered all over the place. "Shells were still raining down round the village, and it felt as if the school was going to collapse on top of us, so we just dragged out the injured," said teacher Mohammad Nureddin, explaining the long trails of blood down the corridors and stairs. "There is a faction in Israel which wants to assassinate (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak and maybe they are behind the shelling. They don't want peace, and they shell civilians to provoke a response against northern Israel in order to muddy the waters and get the talks suspended," he said. Habib Musa was standing at the door of his classroom when the blast from the first explosion blew him into the corridor. "Six pupils in that room were hurt, and three of them are in a serious condition," he said. At the An-Najda hospital in Nabatiyeh, Maryam Sharara held the hand of her four-year-old nephew Ali, who was given painkillers after shrapnel was removed from both his legs. "Why do they shell innocent schoolchildren?" she asked. Nur Hattab was in tears, as she hugged her son, Mohammad Nadar, 11, who had had an operation to remove shrapnel from his chest. A few beds further on, Marwa Hassan, 9, white bandages swathing her whole head, said the last thing she remembered was packing her things into her schoolbag after the first shell exploded. "I woke up in hospital," she said. The Israeli army apologized for the shelling, saying that it had been a "mistake.