(5 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon – 4 August 2025
1. Protesters marching behind a fire truck while holding portraits of victims of Beirut port explosion in August 2020
2. Protesters marching and holding portraits of victims
3. People standing on fire truck holding portraits of victims and Lebanese flag waving
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mireille Khoury, mother of victim Elias Khoury:
++STARTS ON SHOT 1, PARTIALLY OVERLAID BY SHOTS 2-3++
"We will continue pursuing this case until justice is served. We will not stop. This crime will not be another crime and just – we just move on, no. Justice will be served in this case and we will continue following up until this happens."
5. Wide of gathering
6. People holding Lebanese flag, with fire truck in background
7. Security standing by as protesters march
8. Protesters gathered
9. Zoom-out from silos affected by the explosion to people gathering
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Beirut to commemorate the anniversary of the port explosion in the Lebanese capital five years ago.
Protesters held up portraits of the victims as they marched.
The crowd gathered in the street outside the port, overlooking the mammoth grain silos that withstood the force of the blast but later partly collapsed after a series of fires.
Mireille Khoury, the mother of victim Elias, said she wants justice: "We will continue pursuing this case until justice is served. We will not stop."
The Aug. 4, 2020 blast in Beirut’s port tore through the Lebanese capital after hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate detonated in a warehouse.
The gigantic explosion killed at least 218 people, according to an Associated Press count, wounded more than 6,000 others and devastated large swathes of Beirut, causing billions of dollars in damages.
Many family members of the victims pinned their hopes on Judge Tarek Bitar, who was tasked with investigating the explosion.
The maverick judge shook the country’s ruling elite, pursuing top officials, who for years obstructed his investigation.
But five years on, no official has been convicted.
And the widespread rage over the explosion and years of apparent negligence from a web of political, security and judicial officials has faded as Lebanon’s economy further crumbled and conflict rocked the country.
The protesters on Monday held up Lebanese flags and marched next to a fire engine to remember the firefighters who lost their lives in the explosion.
A team of 10 firefighters raced to the Port of Beirut on the day of the explosion to put out the fire raging in Warehouse 12, one a row of warehouses by the water’s edge next to the port’s large grain silo.
The team was at the epicenter when, at around 6:05 p.m., the giant explosion blasted a crater into the port and turned every building around to twisted metal.
AP Video shot by Fadi Tawil and Mohammad Anouti
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