08/04/2020 - 13:25
- Clarín.com
- World
The explosions that shook the Lebanese capital on Tuesday, take place amid a conflictive scenario internally and also due to clashes between Israel and the political party and military militia Hezbollah.
According to the first reports, there was a series of outbreaks after a large fire in a firecracker warehouse near the port of Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported. The intensity of the explosion was such that up to 20 kilometers from the epicenter were heard.
Clash with police during anti-government protests. afp
Several users have shared the images of the explosion on Twitter. According to the Al Arabiya chain, there are buildings several kilometers away that have suffered material damage and the explosion has been heard more than 20 kilometers north of Beirut.
It is not clear what caused the explosion in the firecracker warehouse. The country is experiencing a serious economic crisis that has been escalating. Last year there were numerous protests against inequality and the crisis in public services. Those protests are again shaking the country.
Map of the city of Beirut locating the port, where two explosions left dozens injured - AFP / AFP
Lebanon is the headquarters of the ultra-Islamic Hezbollah party and militia that has been holding a tough bid with Israel that has just threatened actions against it for an alleged leak of guerrillas into Israeli territory.
The serious episode occurred on the same day that dozens of protesters stormed the Energy Ministry, furious at the prolonged blackouts due to electricity rations as the country faces a crippling economic crisis.
The security forces rejected the protesters, chasing away some who managed to violate the ministry's security perimeter. Fights ensued after participants pushed a metal barricade and said they planned to set up a protest sitting in front of the ministry. "We came and we will stay," a participant told the media defiantly. He added that they will free the ministry "from corruption ... and the administration that plunged this country into darkness."
Firefighters working at the scene of the explosion. AFP
Lebanon's economic and financial crisis represents the biggest threat to the country since a devastating 15-year civil war ended in 1990. The highly indebted government is facing rapid inflation and rising unemployment and poverty, all worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lebanon has relied heavily on fuel shipped from neighboring countries and imported diesel for generators that power an incomplete national grid, in ruins since the end of the war. For decades, the country struggled with blackouts and a huge public debt to the national power company, which accumulates a deficit of nearly $ 2 billion a year.
But rations increased since June and became so severe that residents of some areas reported receiving just a couple of hours of electricity a day. The generators were turned off to ration the existing fuel and prices increased due to the devaluation of the national currency. Lebanese have been forced to turn to candles and traditional kerosene lamps, while hospitals warned that fuel was running low.
At the same time, on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his warnings to the Lebanese political party and military militia Hezbollah against any operation targeting Israel. A day earlier, there was an incursion by Israel into Syria, which he denounced as attempts to plant bombs on the border.
"We had attacked a cell, and now we are doing it against those responsible," Netanyahu said, referring to a group of four men that the army said they had shot down on Sunday, when they "tried" to plant bombs, and to the retaliation taken at the next day in Syria. Israel "will do whatever is necessary to guarantee its defense," Netanyahu said during a military visit to the center of the country, "suggesting Hezbollah in particular to take this into account."
The serious social protests this Tuesday in the Lebanese capital. AFP
Hezbollah militias, a powerful group allied to Iran, participated in the Syrian war in defense of the Bashar al Assad regime. Israel has carried out several incursions since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in March 2011, one of the chapters of the Arab Spring. In recent months, attacks attributed to Israel in Syria have increased.
On the other hand, the Israeli army had also deployed in July new reinforcements along its northern border, where it borders Lebanon and Syria, arguing that "it had increased its readiness against potential enemy actions."
Beirut. Agencies