A powerful explosion occurred in the vicinity of the Port of Beirut on 4 August in the evening. Many city blocks were damage, and the echo from the explosion resounded across many hundreds of kilometers, even reaching Nicosia, journalists from Cyprus TV channels reported.
Beirut Governor Marwan Abboud declared that the consequences of the explosion are comparable to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII. According to preliminary reports, more than 3,700 people were injured, and there were more than 100 casualties.
Lebanese authorities declared the capital the scene of a natural disaster.
Owing to the explosion that took place in Beirut, the fact needs to be acknowledged that, following its defeat in the Yom Kippur War, Lebanon has once again become a theater of destruction. With an appreciable layer of the population being Christians, previously neutral Lebanon has continued to be a theater of military operations in recent years. Taking advantage of how weak the country’s government is, various organizations are putting together groups of militants and stockpiling huge amounts of weapons.
However, in recent years the intensity of the armed confrontation between Israel and Muslim militants has not become any weaker, and consequently certain areas of Israel have periodically received fire from Lebanese territory, and Israel, for its part, has used its weapons to carry out strikes on Lebanese territory.
That is why it comes as no surprise that the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut immediately attracted the attention of many countries, and has generated all kinds of speculation on the causes of the explosion, as well as Israel’s potential complicity in it. People are recalling how in early July, as media reported, Israel detonated an explosive device at a nuclear facility in the Iranian city of Natanz that rocked Iran with a powerful explosion.
Many media outlets proclaim that recently the situation along the Israeli borders with Syria and Lebanon has been getting more and more tense. Israel Defense Forces have increased their military presence in the country’s north, and have already carried out repeated airstrikes on Lebanon and Syria. The Times of Israel, citing data from a London-based NGO called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), wrote that one of these attacks was executed by Israel on the morning of 4 August near the city of Abu Kamal in the eastern part of the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, near the Syrian-Iraqi border, and that at least 15 people were killed.
On 27 July, according to Jonathan Conricus, an official representative for the Israeli army, another armed conflict took place on the border between Israel and Lebanon, in the area of Mount Dov. It should be added that lately Israel has increased the number of incidents involving its violation of Lebanese sovereignty.
The actions taken by the Jewish state prompted Beirut to file a complaint with the United Nations against it in April, after its warplanes used Lebanese airspace to strike “Iranian” targets in Syria. On 13 May, on the day US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a visit to Israel, Lebanese media reported on another massive incursion made by Israeli warplanes into the Arab republic’s airspace.
Therefore, an active discussion about what actually caused the horrendous explosion in the Port of Beirut – a terrorist attack, fireworks, or a warehouse with weapons – has vigorously unfolded across many media outlets. The Qatari TV channel Al Arabiya, referring to statements made by representatives from various agencies, and relying on its own sources, has compiled the information available to date.
A missile strike could have been inflicted on Beirut, the Arab TV channel Al Hadat reports.
The Pentagon refutes claims that the explosion was an attack on Beirut. Nevertheless, US President Donald Trump considered the explosion in the Lebanese Port of Beirut to be an attack, despite the fact that the mainstream version for the explosion is not a terrorist attack, but an accidental detonation that set off some explosives. Trump did clarify that he met with various American generals that believe the explosion in Beirut to be an attack.
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