Israel has taken responsibility for bombing a UN outpost in Lebanon in late July -- a fatal miscalculation that claimed the lives of four UN personnel, including one Canadian.

Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener, a Canadian serving as a military observer, died in the strike, along with personnel from Finland, Austria and China. The attack took place on July 25, in the midst of a 34-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

An Israeli government source told CTV that Israel acknowledges the strike was an accident, in an Israeli military report submitted to the UN.

The full report will not likely be made public, but details have been released.

"It does conclude that Israel made a mistake," said CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer, reporting from Jerusalem.

"They acknowledge that this was Israeli fire on a UN building, and an Israeli government source described it to me as 'an error on our side in the classification of the UN position.'"

The report said that Israeli forces fired on the outpost because they believed it was a Hezbollah position.

Israel has long had maps of the region which detail UN positions. However, during the campaign thousands of extra soldiers were called up, maps were duplicated and positions were mapped by hand, the report states.

As a result of the duplication process, an error was made and the person firing the ordnance mistakenly believed a Hezbollah position was being targeted, according to the report.

"We admit it. It was regrettable and it was tragic," Israel's ambassador to Canada Alan Baker told The Canadian Press.

At the time of the fatal strike, the building had been bombarded for hours. UN staff said they had called their Israeli counterparts several times to tell them to stop. They eventually lost radio contact in Khiam.

The report has the following four areas of emphasis, according to the source:

• It discusses the fact there was Hezbollah activity in the area;
• That Israeli forces have standing orders that prohibit the targeting of UN positions;
• That there was daily communication between the Israeli Defence Forces and the UN;
• And the report includes an analysis of the incident.

The report opens and closes with condolences and regrets for what happened.

On the day the tragedy occurred, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to apologize, and ordered the Israeli military to investigate. Olmert also called Prime Minister Stephen Harper to assure him a full investigation would take place.

The new report is the result of that investigation.

The fatal strike came in the midst of a 35-day battle between Israel and Hezbollah that began after Hezbollah militants staged a raid into Israel, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others.

Israel responded with heavy air strikes in southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah retaliated by sending thousands of missiles into Israel.

The captured soldiers have not been released, and their fate is unknown.

With files from CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer in Jerusalem