Lebanese security officials who were concerned about the massive stockpile of ammonium nitrate in Beirut’s port had sent a letter to the country’s prime minister and president two weeks before the blast, warning that the material “could destroy” the capital city if it exploded, a report says.
The Beirut blast that killed 160 people adds to the suffering of Christians who already face food shortages and social unrest due to the coronavirus crisis, aid workers say. Their warnings came shortly before the government resigned Monday amid public outcry over the explosion, triggered by ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at the Beirut port.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced Monday that he and his government have resigned amid public outcry over a Beirut port explosion that killed 160 people. The August 4 blast also injured 6,000 men, women, and children and left hundreds of thousands of residents homeless.
Officers from the 401st Armored Brigade as well as from the Givati and Nahal infantry brigades were training when The Jerusalem Post visited IDF Training Command Headquarters at the Julis base near Ashkelon this week to watch as they virtually trained for a future war with Hezbollah.
The only Arabic Christian broadcaster in Lebanon said Wednesday that it continued broadcasting despite suffering minor damages to its studios in Beirut, where a massive blast killed at least 135 people and injured 5,000 others.
Lebanon’s prime minister has declared a national day of mourning after his nation’s worst explosion in years devastated Beirut killing scores of people and injuring thousands.
The Israeli military confirmed on Monday there had been a “security incident” on the country’s northern border with Lebanon and said its forces were engaged in “ongoing combat” with Hezbollah militants.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Thursday beefed up defenses on the country’s northern border with Lebanon in anticipation of a potential attack after Hezbollah accused Israel of killing one of its fighters during an alleged air raid in Syria on Monday.
Syria’s dictator Bashar Assad has signed a military cooperation agreement with Iran’s Islamic extremist regime, Algemeiner reports. The deal was concluded Wednesday, reportedly as part of an effort to increase Syria’s air defenses against “pressures by America.”
The leader of Lebanese terror group Hezbollah said Tuesday that new US sanctions are intended to “starve” both Syria and Lebanon, the Times of Israel (ToI) reports.
The head of the Lebanese Shiite terror group Hezbollah on Tuesday rejected a US request to empower a UN peacekeeping force patrolling the border with Israel.
Hezbollah is preparing the Syrian Arab Army’s 1st Corps for a future war against Israel, training its commanders and soldiers as well as deploying it for intelligence gathering against the IDF in the Golan Heights.
Israel’s U.N. ambassador said Wednesday that his government is demanding major changes in the way the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon operates on the ground and has support from the United States.
Iran has condemned Germany’s decision to ban the militant Hezbollah movement from carrying out activities on its soil. Tehran also threatened Berlin with unspecified consequences for designating Hezbollah as a “terrorist “organization this week, when German police raided mosques and venues linked to the group.
Israel and the Islamic militant Hezbollah group have reportedly agreed on informal rules of engagement as they prepare for possible war while trying to avoid setting it off. The New York Times newspaper reports that Israel has mostly refrained from killing members of Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and committed to destroying the Jewish state.
Lebanese media have reported that on Wednesday afternoon an Israeli drone attacked a vehicle belonging to the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group, Hezbollah. The vehicle was in Syria, close to the border with Lebanon. There were no reports of any injuries from the strike.
A top Hezbollah commander close to Qassem Soleimani was assassinated in Lebanon Saturday night, following several months of seeming détente between the US and Iran.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon has been accused of helping to bring coronavirus to the nation. Opponents of the powerful group point out that Lebanon took three weeks to block flights from Iran, after a woman who had just returned from there tested coronavirus positive on February 20. Hezbollah is accused of causing the delay to ensure its supporters could return home. Denying the claims, Hezbollah is trying to show the Lebanon Shiite community that it is working to protect them from the outbreak.
The Israel Defense Forces said it shot down a drone that was flown by the Hezbollah terror group into Israeli airspace from Lebanon on Thursday morning.
The regime in Tehran is in lots of trouble these days. As U.S. sanctions tighten, at least a quarter of Iran’s oil rigs are now out of action, ‘dealing a potentially long-term blow to its oil industry.’ The coronavirus ‘has now spread to every province in the country and people are fearful that the true scale of the outbreak is even worse than is being disclosed.’