Lebanon’s Health Minister Hamad Hassan announced that cabinet of President Hassan Diab resigned after he left a government session.

“The whole government resigned,” health minister Hamad said, adding that PM Hassan Diab will head to the presidential palace to hand over the resignation in the name of all the ministers.

Following the blast, 9 Lebanese lawmakers and 3 ministers, including Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najm, Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad and Environment Minister Damianos Kattar, resigned from their position.

Resignations began over the weekend, when authorities also violently cracked down against protesters in the Lebanese capital.

On August 4, two explosions occurred at the port of the city of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The extremely powerful second blast resulted in at least 200 deaths, 6,000 injuries, US$10–15 billion in property damage and an estimated 300,000 people made homeless. (ILKHA)