The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Tuesday designated several individuals and associated entities accused of “facilitating financial activities for Hezbollah.”

By daring to charge powerful figures in the case of the devastating 2020 Beirut port blast this week, Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar has crossed all red lines and openly challenged an entrenched ruling elite.

Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, who resumed his probe Monday in a surprise move after a 13-month suspension, has said that he did what his “conscience dictated” on him after “having reached a dead end.”

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a tweet Tuesday that "we support and urge Lebanese authorities to complete a swift and transparent investigation into the horrific explosion at the Port of Beirut".

The lead investigator into the blast, Judge Tarek Bitar, had decided Monday, to widespread surprise, to resume his probe into the disaster, despite the strong political pressure against him.

MP Ghazi Zoaiter angrily stormed out Tuesday of a session for the Administration and Justice Parliamentary Committee during the discussion of a law on the independence of the judiciary.

Judge Tarek Bitar has charged Prosecutor-General Ghassan Oueidat and judges Ghassan Khoury, Carla Shawwah and Jad Maalouf, a first in the country's history, a judicial official told AFP on Tuesday. 

The prosecution service, however, quickly pushed back, rejecting the resumption of the probe.

Hezbollah Coordination and Liaison Officer Wafiq Safa has said after meeting Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil that "those dismayed by the (Hezbollah-FPM) understanding will not be happy tonight."

A Hezbollah delegation comprising Safa and Hezbollah secretary-general’s aide Hussein Khalil had met Monday with Bassil in Sin el-Fil's Mirna Chalouhi area.

The judge investigating Beirut’s massive 2020 port blast, Tarek Bitar, decided to release five people who had been detained for more than two years. They include former customs chief Shafeek Merhi; Sami Hussein, the head of port’s operations at the time of the blast, and a Syrian worker. Twelve people will remain in custody, including the head of the port authority and the head of the Lebanese customs at the time of the blast.

The move by Bitar to order the release of some of the 17 people who have been held since shortly after the blast came days after protests by family members in Beirut demanding all 17 be set free.

Hussein Khalil, the political advisor of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has told reporters that Judge Tarek Bitar's investigation was a "black stain" on Lebanese justice.

Lead investigator into the Beirut port blast Judge Tarek Bitar had resumed work Monday, over a year after political pressure brought the investigation to a halt.

The Lebanese judge probing the devastating 2020 blast in Beirut port has resumed work, over a year after political pressure brought the investigation to a halt.

Here are some key facts about the blast and its aftermath.