Bloomberg story.
Israel was attacking Hezbollah rocket launchers in Qana that had been used to fire about 150 missiles at northern Israel since the start of the conflict, Air Force Brigadier General Amir Eshel told a news conference in Tel Aviv.
``From the village they've launched rockets every day,'' he said, adding his apology for the civilian deaths. ``Terrorists and civilians occupy the same buildings.''
Air Raids
Eshel said the air force raided the area three times between 12:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. yesterday. While the earliest attack probably hit the building, the report of its collapse came about eight hours later. The later two attacks hit targets as much as 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the building, he said.
Emphasis added.
I think the simplest reading of that indicates that the IAF doesn't think the building exploded on its own. The report of the collapse came later, but that doesn't mean that the actual collapse came around the time of the report, of course.
Note that the people briefing the press are usually not the people intimately involved with the military operation, so it's not unexpected that there may be some discrepancies.
Maybe subsequent investigations will give more information, but western reporters on the scene found no indication of Hezbollah military hardware there.
I assume that the IAF made a terrible targeting error. But either way, it's a terrible situation for the civilians inside. :-(
Cheers,
Scott.