Israel has nothing to do with the massive explosion in the port region of Beirut that occurred today, an Israeli official said.
“Israel has nothing to do with the incident,” said the official, on condition of anonymity.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi told TV station N12 that the explosion was probably an accident caused by a fire.
Strong explosion hits Beirut, Lebanon, leaves people injured
There is no official information about what caused the incident, near a port area, but images released by social networks show an explosion of enormous proportions. Local broadcasters reported that in the port region there were fireworks stores.
Lebanon’s general security summit said the explosion was caused by flames in a warehouse where highly explosive material was stored – including sodium nitrate, a substance used to make explosives and fertilizers. The material had been confiscated from a ship.
“It looks like there is a warehouse containing materials confiscated for years, and it looks like they were very explosive materials,” said General Security Director General Abbas Ibrahim, questioned by journalists in the area. “The services responsible are conducting the investigation, and will say what the nature of the incident is,” he added.
