US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he sent his sympathies to Lebanon after dozens of people were killed and thousands injured in a massive explosion in Beirut.
"We have a very good relationship with the people of Lebanon and we will be there to help. It looks like a terrible attack," Trump told reporters at the White House, according to AFP.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Health Minister said on Tuesday night that 78 people were killed in the Beirut explosion and that some 4,000 were injured.
The cause was not immediately clear but a top official, General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, said confiscated explosive materials had been stored at the city's port.
Israel has also offered assistance to Lebanon in the wake of the explosion. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who approved the provision of humanitarian and medical assistance to Lebanon, instructed the head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben-Shabbat, to speak to UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov in order to find out what else Israel can do to help Lebanon.
The Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat announced that it is ready to receive people who were injured in the Lebanon blast, and the ZAKA organization has also announced that it is ready to take on any mission.
The Sheba Medical Center said on Tuesday evening that the Center for Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Medicine at the hospital contacted the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Health and offered medical assistance as needed to the victims of the explosion in Lebanon. The center has extensive experience in leading humanitarian missions around the world and dealing with areas hit by disasters.
Prof. Yitzhak Kreis, director of the medical center, said, "It is our duty to help everyone who needs it, and certainly our neighbors. We are prepared and ready for any task that is assigned to us."