• Two explosions devastate the port of Beirut: at least 73 dead and 3,700 injured
  • Israel: "Security incident" on the border with Lebanon

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05 August 2020 An atomic mushroom that was raised by the terrible explosion that devastated Beirut and massacred, killing at least 78 people according to an inevitably provisional budget and injuring 3,700 seemed to be an atomic mushroom. The deflagration took place in a warehouse near the port, where 2,700 ammonium nitrate were kept, confiscated years ago by smugglers. A very dangerous substance that is exploded perhaps by the sparks released during a welding operation in the warehouse. The effect was apocalyptic: a roar heard up to the island of Cyprus, more than 200 kilometers away, an impact equal to that of an earthquake of magnitude 4.5. 

The capital of Lebanon has plunged into a nightmare that the governor, Marwan Abboud summed up as follows: "It looks like what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki". The scenes are frightening: many buildings seriously damaged within a radius of kilometers. These also include the presidential palace and several embassies. The Italian diplomatic representation is free. A two-week state of emergency was declared in the city. Among the thousands of wounded, two Italian soldiers of the mission for the training of the Lebanese armed forces. Among the victims of the explosion, there is also a prominent politician, the secretary general of the Kataeb Party, Lebanese Falangi, the Maronite Christian Nizar Najarian. 

The hospitals of Beirut immediately entered a crisis, hit by the wave of wounded. In one of these, the Hotel Dieu, 500 people in need of urgent care have arrived. Calls for blood donation and the immediate return to service of all doctors and nurses have multiplied. The Ministry of Health asked who is well and has the opportunity to leave Beirut for the time being.

President Michel Aoun has called "unacceptable" the fact that 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate have been stored for six years in the port of Beirut without security measures. The premier, Hassan Diab, has assured that all those responsible for "this catastrophe" will be "called to respond". Israeli sources suggest that that warehouse was used by Hezbollah. From Washington Donald Trump claimed, without arguing, that according to the American military, it would be a terrorist attack.