Lebanon Marks Four Years since Port Blast as War Fears Loom

 A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)
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Lebanon Marks Four Years since Port Blast as War Fears Loom

 A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)
A view shows the partially collapsed grain silos damaged in the August 4, 2020 Beirut port blast, as Lebanon prepares to mark the four-year anniversary of the explosion, in Beirut, Lebanon August 2, 2024. (Reuters)

Lebanon on Sunday marks four years since a catastrophic explosion at Beirut's port killed more than 220 people, with fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah hanging heavy over the grim commemoration.

Several marches are set to converge on the port in the afternoon to remember the victims and demand justice.

Nobody has been held responsible for the August 4, 2020 disaster -- one of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions -- which also injured at least 6,500 people and devastated swathes of the capital.

Authorities said the explosion was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had been haphazardly stored for years.

An investigation has stalled, mired in legal and political wrangling.

"The complete lack of accountability for such a manmade disaster is staggering," United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said in a statement on Saturday.

"One would expect the concerned authorities to work tirelessly to lift all barriers... but the opposite is happening," she said, calling for "an impartial, thorough, and transparent investigation to deliver truth, justice, and accountability".

In December 2020, lead investigator Fadi Sawan charged former prime minister Hassan Diab and three ex-ministers with negligence, but as political pressure mounted, he was removed from the case.

His successor, Tarek Bitar, unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to lift parliamentary immunity for MPs who were formerly cabinet ministers.

In December 2021, Bitar suspended his probe after a barrage of lawsuits, while the powerful Hezbollah group has accused him of bias and demanded his dismissal.

But in January last year, he resumed investigations, charging eight new suspects including high-level security officials and Lebanon's top prosecutor, who in turn charged Bitar with "usurping power" and ordered the release of detainees in the case.

The process has since stalled again.

A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Bitar would "resume his proceedings, starting next week" and intends to finish "the investigation and issue his indictment decision... by the end of the year".

Bitar will set dates for questioning defendants who have not yet appeared before him, according to the official.

If the public prosecutor's office or other relevant judicial officials fail to cooperate, Bitar "will issue arrest warrants in absentia" for the defendants, the official added.

Activists have called for a UN fact-finding mission into the blast, but Lebanese officials have repeatedly rejected the demand.

Prospects of further disaster loom over this year's anniversary, with Hamas ally Hezbollah and the Israeli army trading cross-border fire since the Palestinian group's October 7 attack that triggered the Gaza war and fears that an all-out conflict could engulf Lebanon.



Blinken: US Will Continue to Press Israel to Do More to Spare Humanitarian Sites in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
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Blinken: US Will Continue to Press Israel to Do More to Spare Humanitarian Sites in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the United States will continue to urge Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike on a UN school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians killed six UN staffers.

When asked at a news conference in the Polish capital about Israel’s bombing of the school complex in central Gaza the day before, Blinken told reporters that “we need to see humanitarian sites protected.”

“That’s something we continue to raise with Israel,” he said.

Wednesday's strike on the UN-supported al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman, hospital officials said. Among those killed were six staffers from the UN Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza.

UNRWA described the strike as the deadliest single incident for its staff members. Among those killed at the school, it said, were the manager of the shelter and others working to help the thousands of displaced people taking refuge there, including teachers.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said at least 220 UNRWA staffers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Blinken blamed Hamas for continuing to hide its fighters among civilians and said the bombing “underscores the urgency" of reaching a cease-fire in the embattled territory.