Just over two weeks later, the industrial chemicals exploded in a massive blast that obliterated most of the port, killed at least 163 people, injured 6,000 more, and destroyed some 6,000 buildings, according to municipal authorities.

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A report by the General Directorate of State Security about events leading up to the explosion included a reference to a private letter sent to President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab on July 20.

While the content of the letter was not in the report seen by Reuters, a senior security official said it summed up the findings of a judicial investigation launched in January which concluded the chemicals needed to be secured immediately.

The state security report, which confirmed the correspondence to the president and the prime minister, has not previously been reported.

"There was a danger that this material, if stolen, could be used in a terrorist attack," the official said

"At the end of the investigation, Prosecutor General [Ghassan] Oweidat prepared a final report which was sent to the authorities," he said, referring to the letter sent to the prime minister and president by the General Directorate of State Security, which oversees port security.

"I warned them that this could destroy Beirut if it exploded," said the official, who was involved in writing the letter and declined to be named.

Video: Reuters

Reuters could not independently confirm his description of the letter.

The prime minister's office and the presidency did not respond to requests for comment about the July 20 letter.

The prosecutor general did not respond to requests for comment.

The correspondence could fuel further criticism and public fury that the blast is just the latest, if not most dramatic, example of the government negligence and corruption that has already pushed Lebanon to economic collapse.

As protests over the blast raged in Lebanon on Monday, Diab's government resigned, though it will remain as a caretaker administration until a new cabinet is formed.

The rebuilding of Beirut alone is expected to cost up to $15 billion, in a country already effectively bankrupt with total banking system losses exceeding $100 billion.

Aoun confirmed last week that he had been informed about the material. He told reporters he had directed the secretary general of the supreme defense council, an umbrella group of Lebanon's security and military agencies chaired by the president, to "do what is necessary."

"[The state security service] said it is dangerous. I am not responsible! I don't know where it was put and I didn't know how dangerous it was. I have no authority to deal with the port directly. There is a hierarchy and all those who knew should have known their duties to do the necessary," Aoun said.

Many questions remain over why the shipment of ammonium nitrate docked in Beirut in late 2013. Even more baffling is why such a huge stash of dangerous material, used in bombs and fertilizers, was allowed to remain there for so long.

The letter sent to Lebanon's president and prime minister followed a string of memos and letters sent to the country's courts over the previous six years by port, custom and security officials, repeatedly urging judges to order the removal of the ammonium nitrate from its position so close to the city center.

The report by the General Directorate of State Security, said many requests had been submitted, without giving an exact number. It said the port's manifest department sent several written requests to the customs directorate up until 2016 asking them to call on a judge to order the material be re-exported immediately.

"But until now, no decision has been issued over this matter. After consulting one of our chemical specialists, the expert confirmed that this material is dangerous and is used to produce explosives," the General Directorate of State Security report said.

The road to last week's tragedy began seven years ago, when the Rhosus, a Russian-chartered, Moldovan-flagged vessel carrying ammonium nitrate from Georgia to Mozambique, docked in Beirut to try to take on extra cargo to raise the fees for passage through the Suez Canal, according to the ship's captain.

Port authorities impounded the Rhosus on December 2013 by judicial order 2013/1031 due to outstanding debts owed to two companies that filed claims in Beirut courts, the state security report showed.

In May 2014, the ship was deemed unseaworthy and its cargo was unloaded in October 2014 and warehoused in what was known as Hangar 12. The ship sank near the port's breakwater on Feb. 18, 2018, the security report showed.

Moldova lists the owner of the ship as Panama-based Briarwood Corp. Briarwood could not immediately be reached for comment.

In February 2015, Nadim Zwain, a judge from the Summary Affairs Court, which deals with urgent issues, appointed an expert to inspect the cargo, according to the security report.

The report said the expert concluded that the material was hazardous and, through the port authorities, requested it be transferred to the army. The expert's account could not be independently confirmed.

Lebanese army command rejected the request and recommended the chemicals be transferred or sold to the privately-owned Lebanese Explosives Company, the state security report said.

The report did not say why the army had refused to accept the cargo. A security official said  it was because they didn't need it. The army declined to comment.

The explosive company's management stated that it had not been interested in purchasing confiscated material and that the firm had its own suppliers and government import licenses.

From then on, customs and security officials wrote to judges roughly every six months asking for the removal of the material, according to the requests seen by Reuters.

The Judges and customs officials contacted declined to comment.

A number of customs and port officials have since been detained as part of the investigation into the blast.

In January 2020, a judge launched an official investigation after it was discovered that Hangar 12 was unguarded, had a hole in its southern wall, and one of its doors dislodged, meaning the hazardous material was at risk of being stolen.

In his final report following the investigation, Prosecutor General Oweidat "gave orders immediately" to ensure hangar doors and holes were repaired and security provided, a second high-ranking security official who also requested anonymity said.

On June 4, based on those orders, state security instructed port authorities to provide guards at Hangar 12, appoint a director for the warehouse, secure all the doors, and repair the hole in the southern wall, according to  the report and security officials.

The port authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"The maintenance started and [port authorities] sent a team of Syrian workers [but] there was no one supervising them when they entered to fix the holes," the security official said.

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During the work, sparks from the welding took hold and fire started to spread, the official said.

"Given that there were fireworks stored in the same hangar, after an hour a big fire was set off by the fireworks and that spread to the material that exploded when the temperature exceeded 210 degrees," the high-ranking security official said.

The official blamed the port authorities for not supervising the repair crew and for storing fireworks alongside a vast deposit of high explosives.

Reuters could not determine what happened to the workers repairing the hangar.

"Only because the hangar faces the sea, the impact of the explosion was reduced. Otherwise all of Beirut would have been destroyed," he said. "The issue is all about negligence, irresponsibility, bad storage, and bad judgment."

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Dozens were still missing after the explosion, which is also feared to have left as many as 300,000 people homeless in a nation already staggering from economic meltdown and a surge in coronavirus cases.

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"This morning, a decision was taken to create an investigative committee which in four days maximum must provide a detailed report on responsibility -- how, who, what, where? There will be judicial decisions," Wehbe said.

"It is an accident... preliminary reports indicate it is mismanagement of explosive products. This is very serious neglect that continued for six years. Those responsible for this horrible crime of negligence will be punished by a committee of judges," Wehbe vowed. "It is serious, and we take it seriously."

As of Thursday, Lebanese authorities had arrested 16 people suspected in the port warehouse explosion, including the port's general manager, Hassan Koraytem, the state news agency NNA reported.

NNA did not name the individuals, but quoted Judge Fadi Akiki, a government representative of the military court, saying that authorities had so far questioned more than 18 port and customs officials and others who worked in maintenance jobs at the warehouse.

Leader of Lebanon's Druze community Walid Jumblatt demanded an independent international probe into the explosion, which is feared to have left as many as 300,000 people homeless.

"We have no trust at all in this ruling gang," Jumblatt said, as cited by Reuters.

Speaking at a news conference at the end of a dramatic visit to Beirut, French President Emmanuel Macron also called for an international inquiry into the devastating explosion, saying it was an urgent signal to carry out anti-corruption reforms demanded by a furious population.

Macron has promised aid to Lebanon, but reassured angry citizens that no blank checks would be given to its leaders unless Lebanon enacted reforms and ended rife corruption.

The international Human Rights Watch also supported mounting calls for an international probe into the explosion.

"An independent investigation with international experts is the best guarantee that victims of the explosion will get the justice they deserve," HRW said.

Parts of this article were originally published by i24NEWS.

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Dr. Revital Goldschmidt of the Environmental Research Center in Haifa said, "The event in Lebanon illustrates the danger of having concentrations of hazardous materials near a dense population center, and underscores the urgent need to close the flammable, volatile industries."

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Goldschmidt said, "People claim that what exploded [in Beirut] was ammonium nitrate. The ammonium storage facility [in Haifa] has been emptied, but Haifa Bay is still at risk from ammonia, with the tankers carrying it docked not far from the population, and a fertilizer factory that manufactures fertilizer and explosives in the middle of the city, which have 15-ton holding vats that are unprotected.

"We call on the government to submit a plan to close these dangerous factories to the cabinet, urgently," she said.

Goldschmidt went on to say that Israel was not prepared to handle a mass casualty event of the magnitude that would result from an explosion at the Haifa facilities.

"An event on the scale of what happened in Lebanon [with thousands of injured] could put Israel's national strength at risk," the scientist added.

Attorney Jameela Hardal Wakim, director of the Citizens for the Environment non-profit organization, said, "What happened in Beirut could happen in Haifa Bay, as well, or in Ashdod, or anywhere else where there are large stores of hazardous material.

"According to the latest [and incomplete] risk assessment, there are 1,500 risk points and 800 hazardous materials in Haifa Bay, and we also know that the necessary safety measures have not been taken," Hardal Wakim added.

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The attorney said that steps have not been taken to reduce the amount of hazardous materials located at Haifa Bay. She noted that there were also no preparations to handle an accident involving more than one site, or a chain event.

"Small-scale hazardous materials events in Haifa Bay are routine, and we must not wait until a major disaster happens before we act on recommendations to reduce the risks," Hardel-Wakim said.

Haifa Mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem said, "A major disaster occurred at the Port of Beirut. Haifa sends it condolences to the families who lost loved ones. For years, even before I was elected mayor, I have led a fight to stop the expansion of the polluting industries at Haifa Bay. Today, it's clear to us all that it isn't enough to stop them from growing – they also need to leave.

"Our concern, which is based on experts in the field, is about the exact scenario that took place to the north of Israel yesterday [Tuesday]," Kalisch-Rotem said.

The Haifa mayor said that Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel had announced that the Bazan Group's petrochemical facilities would be moved out of Haifa Bay within a few years.

Kiryat Bialik Mayor Eli Dokorsky said, "The deathly blast in Beirut echoes, and demands that we oust the petrochemical industry form Haifa Bay. Hazardous materials and polluting factories have no place in the urban space, amid the population. Having been horrified at the sights from Lebanon, this is the time to take action, and sooner rather than later."

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Magen David Adom paramedics treated the man for burns to his face and upper body and evacuated him to the Rambam Medical Center in serious condition.

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A spokesperson for Rambam Medical Center reported that the man was in an induced coma and on a respirator.

Firefighters were searching the building where the explosion occurred to make sure no one else was wounded. Special teams were also working to ensure that no hazardous materials had been released in the incident.

The cause of the explosion was under investigation.

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