Speaking to people in a live televised address on Monday, Diab first blamed the explosion on mismanagement resulting from “endemic corruption” in the country, Press TV reported.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Diab slammed certain corrupt political actors for undermining his government’s efforts by distorting the truth.

“Today we follow the will of the people in their demand to hold accountable those responsible for the disaster that has been in hiding for seven years, and their desire for real change,” Diab said, adding, “In the face of this reality … I am announcing today the resignation of this government.

“May God saves Lebanon, may God save Lebanon, may God save Lebanon.”

He said his government “tried to create change to meet the demands of the Lebanese people, adding, “We are with the people in calling for trying those responsible for this crime.”

Diab also denounced those who are trying to take advantage of the Beirut blast for their own political gain.

After months of a power vacuum in the small Mediterranean country, Diab’s cabinet formed in January to combat alleged corruption and mismanagement, and to revive Lebanon’s collapsed economy.

Before Diab announced the government’s resignation, four cabinet ministers had already quit their posts.

The tragic explosion caused by the detonation of more than 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate in a port warehouse has so far killed more than 200 citizens and injured more than 6000 others.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fire that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate. The material had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safeguards despite numerous warnings of the danger, Al-Jazeera reported.

“I call for caution in the coming days because I fear the situation will deteriorate in light of heightened tensions on our border,” Diab said on Twitter.

Israel was trying to “change the rules of engagement,” he said.

The Israeli military fired dozens of shells at the Shebaa Farms area on Monday in response to what it claimed an infiltration effort by Hezbollah fighters through the Shebaa Farms area along Lebanon’s southern border.

Israeli forces have been on alert in anticipation of retaliation by Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement for the killing of one of its members a week ago in an Israeli attack on the edge of the Syrian capital Damascus.

After two Hezbollah members were killed in Damascus last August, it leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, vowed to respond if Israel killed any of its fighters in Syria. But Hezbollah’s deputy leader said on Sunday all-out war with Israel was unlikely.

Hezbollah, which has a large presence in the area, said in a statement on Monday that “it did not take part in any clash and did not open fire”.

The resistance movement said the Israeli claims are aimed at boosting the morale of Israeli forces by fabricating fictitious victories.

“All that the enemy’s media is claiming about thwarting an infiltration operation from Lebanon into occupied Palestine… is completely false,” it added.

The movement added that Tel Aviv’s claims about having killed or injured a number of Hezbollah fighters in air raids were also false and totally incorrect.

“The occupiers’ claims are all aimed at fabricating spurious and fictitious victories for them,” Hezbollah said, adding, “Up to this moment, there has been no conflict or opening of fire started by the resistance [forces] during what happened today.”

The statement noted that all firings came from only one side, which was the coward and anxious enemy.

Hezbollah added that it reserves the right to give a proper answer to Israel’s killing of its member Ali Kamel Mohsen during the latest Israeli attack on Syria from the occupied Golan Heights last week.

AFP, Reuters, and Press TV contributed to this story.