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Beirut explosion: news summary, Friday 14 August

Update:
BEIRUT, LEBANON - AUGUST 13: Bulldozers continue work at the base of the destroyed Beirut port silos on August 13, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon. The explosion at Beirut's port last week killed over 200 people, injured thousands, and upended countless live

Beirut explosion: live updates - Friday 14 August

UN launches $565m appeal 

Volunteers from the community based group 'Food Not Bombs' cut and prepare fresh food to make five hundred meals for people in need at a damaged apartment block on August 14, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon. The explosion at Beirut's port last week killed over 200 people, injured thousands, and upended countless lives. There has been little visible support from government agencies to help residents clear debris and help the displaced, although scores of volunteers from around Lebanon have descended on the city to help clean. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

In pictures: Volunteers from the community based group 'Food Not Bombs' cut and prepare fresh food to make five hundred meals for people in need at a damaged apartment block on August 14, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon.

The explosion at Beirut's port last week killed over 200 people, injured thousands, and upended countless lives. There has been little visible support from government agencies to help residents clear debris and help the displaced, although scores of volunteers from around Lebanon have descended on the city to help clean. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

India sends PPE to Lebanon

India has sent 58 megatonnes of PPE, including surgical gloves and surgical gowns, to Lebanon as Beirut continues to struggle with the coronavirus crisis amidst the backdrop of a city left devestated by last week's port explosion. 

“Based on this, today morning an Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft was deployed to deliver 58 MT of emergency humanitarian aid on behalf of the Government of India to Lebanon," said an Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson.

"The aircraft landed in Beirut a few hours back and the aid has been handed over by our Ambassador to senior officials of the Lebanese Armed Forces which is coordinating all the relief efforts.

"The aid contains emergency medical supplies, wheat flour, sugar and pulses, and also relief material like blankets, dignity kits and sleeping mats, which are required as large number of people have been rendered homeless."

The Weekend donates $300k to Lebanon.

Pop superstar, The Weekend, has donated $300,000 to Global Aid for Lebanon to support the recovery in Beirut.

Hezbollah will respond if Beirut blast was sabotage, says Nasrallah

Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that his group would wait for results of a probe into the Beirut port blast, but that if it turns out to be an act of sabotage by Israel then it would "pay an equal price".

Speaking in a televised speech, he said the two theories under investigation were that an accident or sabotage caused the explosion of ammonium nitrate stored at a warehouse. Israel has denied any involvement in the 4 August blast that killed 172 people and injured 6,000.

Impactful footage...

BREAKING: Lebanon's prosecutor general charges 25 over port blast - Reuters source

Lebanon's Prosecutor General Ghassan Oweidat has pressed charges against 25 people, including senior port and customs officials and security officers, over the massive Beirut port blast that killed 172 people, a judicial source told Reuters on Friday. It was not immediately clear what the exact charges were.

Legal sources said the suspects would now be referred to a criminal court to be tried. The judicial source said 19 of them were detained following the 4 August explosion at a warehouse that Lebanese authorities said housed highly-explosive material for years which detonated. (Reporting by Reuters)

Kim Ghattas seeals to Gzero

Acclaimed journalist and author, Kim Ghattas, spoke to Gzero about the current situation in Beirut. 

"What I see in terms of rage on the streets of Beirut really tells me that this is a make or break moment for Lebanon," says Ghattas, whose latest book, Black Wave, covers the "unravelling" of the Middle East due to a 40-year rivalry between Saudia Arabia and Iran. Check out the video below...

World Central Kitchen at the Kenyan Embassy

World Central Kitchen is a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation, founded in 2010 by celebrity chef José Andrés, which provides meals in the aftermath of disasters.

Beirut

Diggers remove earth at the blast site next to the silos at the port of Beirut on August 14, 2020, in the aftermath of the massive explosion there that ravaged Lebanon's capital. (Photo by JOSEPH EID / AFP)

Since Beirut's devastating explosion, nearly 80,000 children have been displaced, according to a report in the Washington Post. NGO World Vision has also warned that the disaster has left Beirut's young "completely unprotected" against the novel coronavirus

Parly

French Defence Minister Florence Parly poses with members of French and Lebanese army after giving a news conference, as she visits the devastated site of the massive explosion at the port of Beirut, Lebanon. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani

Lebanon alone must decide its own future, says Iran foreign minister

(Reuters) Only the Lebanese people and their representatives can decide the country's future, Iran's foreign minister said on a visit to Beirut on Friday, following the massive blast at the city's port that killed 172 people and prompted the government to resign.

Iran backs Lebanon's powerful armed movement Hezbollah, which along with its allies helped form the outgoing government. The United States classifies Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

Mohammed Javad Zarif was speaking after senior US and French officials met President Michel Aoun in a flurry ofWestern diplomacy that has focused on urging Lebanon to fight entrenched corruption and enact long-delayed reforms in order to unlock international financial aid to tackle an economic crisis.

While Lebanon's President Aoun said an international investigation would undermine his country's sovereignty, the country may have no choice but to accept one after the Beirut explosion, which could be forced under the UN’s Responsibility to Protect.

beirut

People stop to view the destroyed Beirut port. The explosion at Beirut's port last week killed over 200 people, injured thousands, and upended countless lives. There has been little visible support from government agencies to help residents clear debris and help the displaced, although scores of volunteers from around Lebanon have descended on the city to help clean. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Netherlands campaign

National Day of Action in the Netherlands

Thomas van der Vlugt, Garance de Reus and Irene Moors speak during the kick-off of the National Day of Action for the victims of the powerful explosion in Beirut in Hilversum, the Netherlands, on Friday, as the Cooperating Aid Organizations, or Giro555, ask for support all day long for the relief work for the Lebanese population.

(Photo: Sander KONING / ANP / AFP)

Beirut explosion live coverage: welcome

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, which killed over 170 people and left over 6,000 injured after around 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonated in the port area of the Lebanese capital on Tuesday last week.