Calls continued in Lebanon to return to the protest against the ruling authority, demanding retribution for the victims of the Beirut port explosion, while Lebanese forces mobilized to collect enough resignations and provide the space for early parliamentary elections. On the other hand, the French ambassador in Beirut announced his country's participation in the investigations that the Lebanese authorities are conducting to uncover the circumstances of the explosion.

Activists posted on the media today calls to continue the protest, and those calls carried slogans such as "Hang the gallows because our anger does not end with one day" and "Do not give up."

Calm returned this morning to the Lebanese capital after bloody demonstrations last night between security forces and protesters who were demanding accountability for those responsible for the Beirut port explosion and for the resignation of Hassan Diab's government, and clashes took place in Martyrs' Square and in the vicinity of Parliament.

The director of the Al-Jazeera office in Beirut, Mazen Ibrahim, said that security forces are deployed in the area in an attempt to control matters, and indicated the extent of the destruction caused by the protests, which led to dozens of casualties.

And Reuters reported that soldiers stationed today in cars equipped with machine guns near Martyrs' Square.

Why oh army .. # Lebanon__ rise up pic.twitter.com/w5SnUh7JNg

- Larissa Aoun (@LarissaAounSky) August 8, 2020

Victims of the protests

The Lebanese Red Cross announced that its ambulance teams were transferred to hospitals and fielded about 240 wounded patients during yesterday's clashes.

The Lebanese army said that 150 of its members, including 8 officers, were wounded while carrying out policing operations during the protests, while the security forces announced the death of one of its members and arrested 5 protesters for rioting.

The protesters stormed a number of government headquarters, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economy, Energy and Environment, as well as the Banking Association building.

During the demonstrators storming the buildings of the ministries of economy and environment, they deliberately - according to Anadolu Agency - to throw papers and documents from the upper floors of the two ministries, while the Banking Association building witnessed crushing and burning operations.

Angry demonstrators also stormed the headquarters of the Banking Association in downtown Beirut and set fire to its ground floor, before the army intervened to repel them. And the Lawyers' Committee for the Defense of the Demonstrators reported that 20 people had been arrested, noting that dozens of demonstrators had been subjected to "excessive violence."

The explosion at the port - last Tuesday evening - killed 158 people, injured more than 6 thousand, displaced 300 thousand people, destroyed parts of the city and exacerbated the economic and political collapse facing Lebanon.

Lebanese Minister of Information, Manal Abdel Samad, in his resignation statement: After the horror of the disaster and bending in front of the souls of the martyrs, and in response to the popular will for change, I submit my resignation from the government # Beirut_blast #Lebanon__Lebanon #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/65NT9bpXNV

- Rabab Baddah (@rababbaddah) August 9, 2020

Government and Parliament

Due to the repercussions of the explosion, Lebanese Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad announced today her resignation from her post, and said in a press conference that her move came after the explosion of the Beirut port and the government's inability to effect the desired change.

And local media reported that a number of ministers are heading to resign, while the prime minister is trying to invite them to wait, and if 8 of the 20 ministers who make up the cabinet resign, the government is considered resigned.

The French Press Agency reported that a government source revealed that Diab had met with a number of ministers, including the ministers of economy and defense. Since last Wednesday, 6 MPs have resigned from Parliament, including the Three Phalangists who have been opposed to power for years.

The head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, said - in his tweet on Twitter - that he is making the necessary contacts to collect enough resignations to reach early parliamentary elections as soon as possible.

The Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rai also called - in today's Mass - Diab's government to resign, adding that it is no longer unable to advance the country, and Al-Rahi called for early parliamentary elections, and said that the moves Beirut witnessed confirms the impatience of the Lebanese people and requires bold decisions.

The director of the Al-Jazeera office in Beirut stated that the political forces that formed the government were still providing support and defending it in the face of mounting calls for its resignation.

And what did the Lebanese authorities do, Mr. President, to prove to their people that they are worthy of confidence in revealing the truth, and that Lebanon does not need an international investigation? Where are the achievements of the judiciary, for example, in uncovering official corruption that has been rampant for decades? https://t.co/bNEJJWfI4e

- Human Rights Watch (@hrw_ar) August 9, 2020

Rescue and investigations

With regard to efforts to recover the victims of the explosion, searches for people trapped under the rubble are still continuing in the Beirut port and the affected neighborhoods, as Lebanese and foreign rescue teams race to find 21 missing people still under the rubble, and it is unlikely that they are alive 5 days after the tragedy. .

On the other hand, the French Press Agency quoted a judicial source as saying that the Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, assigned the Military Police Command in the Lebanese Army to interrogate senior leaders of the security services in Beirut Port.

The authorities had arrested more than 20 people pending investigations, including officials at the port, customs and engineers, headed by the chairman of the port’s board of directors, Hassan Quraytem, ​​and the Director General of Customs, Badri Daher.

For his part, the Information Office of the Presidency of the Lebanese Republic said that President Michel Aoun considers the demand for an international investigation into the issue of the Beirut Port bombing as a waste of time. The Information Office quoted President Aoun as saying that the judiciary should be swift without haste, to confirm who is a criminal and who is innocent, as he put it.

In a context related to the investigation, the French Ambassador to Lebanon Bruno Fuchsia announced today that his country will participate in the investigations into the port explosion through 46 security personnel, and added - in a tweet on his Twitter account - that these will provide technical support in the judicial investigation that the Lebanese Public Prosecution opened in the incident. The French ambassador indicated that their participation in the investigations would be a guarantee of their speed and impartiality.

According to preliminary investigations, the explosion occurred in Ward 12 of the Beirut port, which the authorities said contained about 2,750 tons of high explosive ammonium nitrate, which had been confiscated and stored since 2014.

The explosion of Beirut adds to the difficulties of a country that has been suffering for months from the repercussions of a severe economic crisis, and a sharp political polarization in which internal conflicts and external influences overlap.