Berri Says Parliament Ready to Lift Immunity for Beirut Blast Probe

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a legislative session at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon January 15, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a legislative session at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon January 15, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Berri Says Parliament Ready to Lift Immunity for Beirut Blast Probe

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a legislative session at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon January 15, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri heads a legislative session at UNESCO Palace in Beirut, Lebanon January 15, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Speaker Nabih Berri said on Thursday the Lebanese legislature was ready to lift the immunity of its members in order allow for questioning over last year's massive port explosion in the capital Beirut.

The August 4 blast killed over 200 people, injured thousands and destroyed large parts of the city. Nearly a year later, however, no top officials have been questioned over the disaster, angering many Lebanese.

"The priority of parliament was and will continue to be complete cooperation with the judiciary," Berri said in a statement after a meeting with Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Hariri had called for lawmakers' immunity to be lifted earlier this week by suspending all constitutional and legal regulations that allow for it.

Berri did not say when immunity would be lifted or how.

A probe into the port blast led by judge Tarek Bitar has been hindered over the past month as requests sent to parliament and the government to lift immunity and enable questioning of several top officials were either declined or stalled.

Major questions remain unanswered, including why a large shipment of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in bombs and fertilizer, was left stored in the middle of a crowded city for years after being unloaded in 2013.



Israel Army Chief Says Will Use 'All Tools' to Find West Bank Attackers

Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli army Eyal Zamir attends the official state opening ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day in Israel, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, 23 April 2025. EPA/ABIR SULTAN
Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli army Eyal Zamir attends the official state opening ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day in Israel, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, 23 April 2025. EPA/ABIR SULTAN
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Israel Army Chief Says Will Use 'All Tools' to Find West Bank Attackers

Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli army Eyal Zamir attends the official state opening ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day in Israel, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, 23 April 2025. EPA/ABIR SULTAN
Chief of the General Staff of the Israeli army Eyal Zamir attends the official state opening ceremony of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day in Israel, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, 23 April 2025. EPA/ABIR SULTAN

Israel's military will use "all the tools" at its disposal to find the perpetrators of a West Bank attack that left a pregnant Israeli woman dead, army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said Thursday.

"We will use all the tools at our disposal and reach the murderers in order to hold them accountable," Zamir said as he visited the scene of the attack on the woman's vehicle in the north of the occupied West Bank.

"After struggling to save the life of the woman who was critically injured in the shooting attack in Samaria and arrived during resuscitation, the medical teams were forced to pronounce her dead," Beilinson Hospital said in a statement, using the biblical name to refer to the West Bank.

It added that the baby was delivered via caesarean section and transferred to another hospital.