https://www.wsj.com/articles/beirut-explosion-what-happened-11596590426
A view of Beirut's destruction days after the blast last year. Sam Tarling For The Wall Street Journal
Beirut Explosion: What Happened in Lebanon and Everything Else We Know
A year on, activists and relatives of the more than 200 people who were killed in the blast are still seeking justice
Nazih Osseiran
@NazihOsseiran
nazih.osseiran@dowjones.com
Isabel Coles
@isabelcoles
isabel.coles@wsj.com
Updated Aug. 4, 2021 3:01 pm ET
More than 200 people were killed in a massive explosion at the port in Beirut on Aug. 4 last year, ravaging the heart of residential areas and the city's vibrant commercial district.
A year on, activists and the families of those killed and injured in the explosion are still seeking justice. Many Lebanese blame years of poor governance and corruption among the entire ruling elite for the explosion.
On Wednesday, tens of thousands of Lebanese gathered near the Beirut port. They observed a moment of silence a little after 6 p.m. local time, around when the explosion occurred last year, as a mark of respect for the more than 200 people who were killed that day.
Then large crowds converged on central Beirut, some clashing with security forces, as they protested against country's ruling elite.
Here is what we know.
What happened in Beirut?
A giant explosion at a warehouse in the port sent a shock wave through east and downtown Beirut at about 6 p.m. local time on Aug. 4 last year. Videos of the blast posted on social media showed smoke billowing from the warehouse on the waterfront before a massive explosion produced a dome-shaped cloud that engulfed large parts of central Beirut. The force of the blast did tremendous damage to the surrounding neighborhoods and nearby buildings. The homes of tens of thousands of people were damaged by the blast.
Beirut Blast
Beirut was rocked by an explosion felt as far as 150 miles away in Cyprus on Tuesday.
Key damaged locations
BEIRUT CENTRAL
Port of Beirut
Site of explosion
Beirut Governmental
Shopping area
Beirut Souks
About 1 mile (1.6 km)
Forum de Beyrouth
REMEIL
Al-Amin Mosque
GEITAWI
Hospital Geitaoui
Sursock
St. Maroun
Maronite Catholic
Beirut River
Damaged locations
Source: Maxar Technologies (satellite image)
What caused the explosion in Beirut?
Authorities say the blast occurred when a fire at a warehouse—Hangar 12—on the city's waterfront ignited a cache of ammonium nitrate, an explosive material that had been stored at the site for more than six years.
What is ammonium nitrate?
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound most commonly used in fertilizers. It is also used to make explosives and was a main ingredient in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.
Fire, Blast and Shockwave
How ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut's port caused chaos through the city
A fire breaks out at a port warehouse storing ammonium nitrate.
A first explosion sends a towering plume of smoke into the air.
A second explosion triggers a ball of fire. The fireball rises, pulling air, water vapor and debris into the mushroom stem.
A white, dome-shaped shockwave shatters windows and damages buildings as it sweeps through the city.
The cloud billowing over Beirut is brown and red, the color of nitrogen dioxide released when the ammonium nitrate exploded.
Mushroom stem
Sources: Cheryl Rofer, Los Alamos National Laboratory (retired); Jeffrey Lewis, Middlebury Institute; Vipin Narang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Andrea Sella, University College London
Roque Ruiz/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A judge leading an investigation into the blast in December charged caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three former ministers with negligence in relation to the blast. Mr. Diab has denied any wrongdoing. Judge Fadi Sawan was removed in February following complaints by the former ministers.
The new lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, is seeking to question Mr. Diab along with former officials, lawmakers and security chiefs. He has asked parliament to lift the immunity these officials enjoy, as required by law before he can listen to their testimony. But his requests have yet to be approved.
A view of the port after the explosion on Aug. 4, 2020, in Beirut, Lebanon.
FADEL ITANI/NURPHOTO/ZUMA PRESS
Children playing with a football past rubble and destruction along a street in the Gemmayzeh district of Lebanon's capital Beirut on Aug. 28, 2020.
A statue of a woman by Lebanese artist Hayat Nazer, made out of leftover glass, rubble, and a broken clock marking the time (6:08 PM) of the explosion was placed near the disaster site.
Lebanese authorities say the explosives originally entered Beirut's port on a ship bound for Mozambique in 2013. Shiparrested.com, a shipping industry newsletter, said in 2015 that the vessel, which was carrying 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, was forced to dock in 2013 in Beirut due to technical problems. Its owners later abandoned it there. Local authorities transferred the explosives to a warehouse in the port and were meant to dispose of them safely, according to the newsletter, but they never did.
After the blast, the Lebanese army on Sept. 3 said it found more than four tons of ammonium nitrate near Beirut's port. An engineering team discovered the chemical during a search of a warehouse that was requested by the customs agency at the port, an army official said. It wasn't immediately clear if the chemical was from the same stockpile that blew up, but it served as a reminder of the security lapses that led to the Aug. 4 blast.
Lebanese leaders have backed a probe that has focused on junior officials working at the port, but residents say they want national leaders held accountable for years of poor governance and corruption.
More than two dozen people have been arrested in connection with the explosion as on Oct. 22, according to state media. No ministers have been charged.
Escalating protests forced Mr. Diab and his cabinet to resign a week after the blast. He remains caretaker prime minister with limited powers as two candidates after him failed to form a government. On July 26, Lebanon's political factions nominated billionaire businessman and former Prime Minister Najib Mikati to form the country's next government in an attempt to break the monthslong deadlock. The move has angered many Lebanese who sought a complete overhaul of the political system they blame for the deadly Beirut explosion.
Days after a massive explosion rocked the city of Beirut last year, WSJ's Dion Nissenbaum visited the blast site. Photo: Dion Nissenbaum for the Wall Street Journal
What is Lebanon's economic situation now?
Lebanon's already fragile economy sharply deteriorated in the past year. The value of the country's currency has plummeted in recent months, and its overtaxed power system has plunged the capital of Beirut into darkness for hours at a time.
The crisis has resulted in rationing and scarcity of medicines and other goods as the government has lacked the funds to pay for imports. The crisis also hobbled the country's medical sector as it tackled the Covid-19 pandemic.
The World Bank says Lebanon's economic crisis—which has pushed millions of people into poverty—is possibly one of the three worst the world has seen in the past 150 years.
A year after the blast, many neighborhoods haven't recovered.
Photo: Marwan Tahtah/Getty Images
Meanwhile, the international community is refusing to disburse aid unless the Lebanese political class forms a government and tackles corruption in the public sector. An initiative by French President Emmanuel Macron —who has visited Lebanon twice since the blast—to expedite the formation of a government has yet to yield results.
The dominance of Hezbollah over Lebanon's political system is also a sticking point for the U.S., which has sanctioned politicians allied with the group since the blast.
How has the coronavirus pandemic affected the country?
A monthslong lockdown earlier this year helped contain the outbreak, but infections are on the rise again from the highly contagious Delta variant after an influx of tourists over the summer season. The small Mediterranean country of 5.8 million has recorded more than 500,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of July 2021. About 12% of the population has been inoculated so far, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Many of Beirut's hospitals remain strained, owing to the country's poor infrastructure and the limited resources that were devoted to combating the coronavirus.
How have Lebanese people responded to the explosion amid economic and political crises?
Many Lebanese are pushing the government for accountability, asking why such explosive material was allowed to remain for so long near areas populated by civilians. They want to know how and why the fire and resulting explosion took place. Activists have called for demonstrations to mark the first anniversary of the explosion.
Families of the Beirut blast victims and others demonstrated last month for accountability in the deadly blast.
Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
In July, some families of the blast victims clashed with the police outside the interior minister's house. They were angry at the minister for refusing to allow the lead investigator into the explosion from questioning a senior security official.
Tens of thousands of protesters had converged days after the blast on central Beirut, some clashing with security forces and taking over government buildings, as they demanded revenge. More than 700 people were injured in the protests, according to first responders.
The mass demonstration followed large protests that erupted in Lebanon in 2019 to denounce government corruption and mismanagement. Protesters took to the streets again earlier this year as the coronavirus and financial crises heaped economic pressure on ordinary Lebanese people. They attacked bank buildings as they vented frustration at soaring prices of food and other goods and what many Lebanese see as a sclerotic political system unwilling to fix the country's problems.
Some groups from the protest movement are now forming alliances to challenge the established political parties in future elections.
How does Beirut's waterfront area look a year later?
The blown-out shells of what were once Beirut's wheat silos still tower over the port. Stench seeps from the rotting grain spread across the blast site. A ship that was blown clean out of the sea and onto the dock remains rusting there. Shattered storefronts can be seen on the long road that runs parallel to the port. Many damaged buildings nearby await repair.
Sursock Palace, an iconic building in a nearby area, stands as a shell of its former grandeur. Emergency construction work was done to shield it from the elements but no actual reconstruction has commenced due to a shortage of funds.
The Beirut port is still a disaster zone one year after the blast.
Photo: wael hamzeh/EPA/Shutterstock
Some of the popular nightclubs and restaurants that were destroyed in the Bohemian neighborhoods of Gemmayzeh and Mar Mikhael have been restored. But the area is a lot quieter now and often dark due to electricity cuts in the city.
Rebuilding continues in some areas, but progress has been slow. A majority of reconstruction so far has been funded by NGOs, foreign grants and private donors. The government was seen as incompetent and corrupt, and backers gave access to funding directly to those afflicted by the blast. The Lebanese Army coordinated the distribution of funds.
Write to Isabel Coles at isabel.coles@wsj.com
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