Beirut Explosion: Death toll rises to 154

CAIRO – 7 August 2020: The death toll from Beirut’s deadly blast rose to 154, while the 20 percent of 5,000 injured people have been hospitalized, announced Lebanese Minister of Health Hamad Hassan on Friday.

He added that only 120 cases of hospitalized patients are in severe condition, reported the Lebanese newspaper Al Joumhouria.

At the Beirut port on August 4, 2020, huge fire was seen just before a deadly explosion took place at the same spot in Beirut, horrifying citizens and destroying houses. The horrible explosion, which has been easily recorded by many citizens, was caused by a fire in a warehouse that housed an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, according to Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Dozens of people are still missing under the debris of the collapsed buildings, while 300,000 citizens turned homeless. A total of 80,000 children have been displaced, according to the UNICEF.

The UNICEF in Lebanon announced that it is working with counterparts and partners to scale up support for the affected children and their families, calling for urgent aid of US$4.4 million to meet the affected people’s needs.

Several countries around the globe sent or pledged assistance to Lebanon; Egypt, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Iran already sent planes and ships of food, medical, and oil aid. Meanwhile, countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Germany, Algeria, also dispatched theirs for the emergency assistance.

Beirut governor Marwan Abboud announced on Wednesday that the port's losses alone stand at $15 billion, saying that half of the city of Beirut was damaged in the blast.

The Lebanese government declared on Wednesday a two-week state of emergency in Beirut after the explosion, noting that the state of emergency is renewable. Meanwhile, it announced that all officials who were responsible of the storage of the ammonium nitrate cargo will be under house arrest, giving orders to the army to execute the house arrest.