LEBANON – ISRAEL – VATICAN Beirut: Relatives of the victims of August 4 visit the Pope for justice and peace in Lebanon

A delegation of relatives of those killed in the port explosion received a private audience with Francis this morning. The Pope’s closeness in the fight against impunity and obstacles to investigations. This was followed by a mass celebrated by the Secretary of State Card. Parolin. A meeting that follows a day of tension (and war) between Israel and Hezbollah. Nasrallah: “all red lines” crossed.

Beirut () – On the occasion of the fourth anniversary (just completed) of the devastating explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, a delegation of relatives of the victims is received today, August 26, in a private audience by Pope Francis at the Vatican. A traumatic event that caused a deep wound The Pope’s visit to Lebanon, with 235 victims, thousands of wounded and entire districts of the capital destroyed, has been a source of great concern to the Lebanese population, whose relatives and activists have been calling for justice and truth about the incident for years, and in vain so far. “This is first and foremost a visit of thanksgiving,” Dr Nazih el-Adem, whose daughter Krystel died in the prime of her life from the explosion, told on the eve of his departure. “Every year, on the date of the tragedy, during the Angelus prayer, the Pope remembers this crime and asks that justice take its course; we can only thank him personally.”

Dr. Adem will address the Pope on behalf of the entire delegation. He will insist on the need for the political class, which is directly responsible or at least negligent in the catastrophe, to stop obstructing the investigation into the explosion. Some twenty formal objections have been filed against investigating judge Tarek Bitar to prevent him from carrying out the investigation, which includes questioning ministers, former ministers and senior officials who are also members or close collaborators of the Shiite tandem Amal-Hezbollah.

Fight against impunity

“We are fighting against impunity,” says lawyer Cécile Roukoz, also a member of the delegation that welcomed the Pope this morning and whose brother Joseph, a father of a family, died in the explosion while he was in his office at the port. “We are opening our hearts and telling Pope Francis and the Vatican about the tragedy, because they are the highest moral authority in the world, to ask – she explains – that impunity not prevail over the law.”

For Dr Nazih el-Adem, it cannot be ruled out that the committee of parents of the victims, in desperation, will decide to turn to the UN Human Rights Commission to establish the truth and obtain justice. After the private audience, the delegation will attend a mass in suffrage for the victims of the explosion celebrated by the Secretary of State of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, after which they will be received for a personal meeting.

The delegation is made up of about 20 people and will be accompanied by some ecclesiastical figures from the Lebanese Christian community. Among them will be one of its most convinced spokesmen, William Noun, brother of firefighter Joe Noun. Together with several of his colleagues, he had to fight the fire that broke out inside the shed where the nitrate was stored. In homage to his sacrifice and as a sign of solidarity, a delegation of firefighters from Rome will participate in the mass officiated by the Cardinal. The Apostolic Nuncio in Lebanon, Msgr. Paolo Borgia, will also be present at the audience and will lead the delegation in the meeting with Cardinal Parolin.

According to sources who have received more than one response, the visit and the audience have an exclusively pastoral dimension and are intended to show the people affected by the tragedy the Pope’s spiritual support. However, it is equally clear that the papal audience will give greater visibility to the cause of the victims’ families, who are fighting against impunity and the general silence of the Lebanese ruling class and part of the judiciary. We know that since 2021 Pope Francis has not ceased to remind the world of the cause of the families of the victims of the explosion. During the Angelus prayer on August 4, the pontiff said with renewed vigor: “Today too, the Lebanese people are suffering so much! I am thinking in particular of the families of the victims of the explosion in the port of Beirut. I hope that justice and truth will soon be done.”

Israel’s attack

The private hearing is taking place in a difficult, if not explosive, regional context, particularly following the bombing of Tel Aviv by Hezbollah in response to the assassination on 30 July of one of its military chiefs, Fouad Chokr. The senior leader of the pro-Iranian Lebanese movement was hit by a guided missile aimed at his home in Haret Hreik, on the southern outskirts of Beirut.

This attack was considered by Hezbollah as a violation of the tacit rules of engagement agreed with Israel: they specifically exclude the shelling of civilian residential areas and confine the exchange of fire to a depth of 10-12 km on either side of the “Blue Line”, which serves as the border between Lebanon and Israel.

The state of alert declared yesterday in the Land of the Cedars during Israel’s preemptive strike and Hezbollah’s military response – with the launching of hundreds of rockets – was lifted a few hours after the fierce exchange of fire between the two sides. The impact of Hezbollah’s operation was contained – and minimized – by the Israeli military authorities, who responded by playing it safe with massive retaliatory bombings against Lebanon. Commenting on the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “further step” to “change” the situation on the northern front of the conflict. Late in the afternoon came the response from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who accused Israel of crossing “all the red lines” and of being “solely responsible for the escalation”, finally promising a new response.