In recent days, Israeli attacks have come “perilously close” to striking a UN-designated world heritage site in east Lebanon, the UN has warned, putting one of the best-preserved Roman ruins in the world in danger of being destroyed by Israeli bombing.
This week, Israeli forces ordered the entire city of Baalbek, in the Bekaa Valley, to evacuate — the first citywide displacement order amid Israel’s escalating attacks on Lebanon. The sweeping order affected 80,000 residents of the ancient city, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In subsequent days, Israeli forces have bombed Baalbek, killing 11 people in an air raid on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency, and killing 19 people on Wednesday.
These strikes are also threatening to destroy Roman ruins that are some 2,000 years old, like the Temple of Bacchus and Temple of Jupiter.
“In recent days, attacks on sites in Baalbek in the Bekaa valley have come perilously close to the ancient temple complex which is a UNESCO listed world heritage site,” the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement on Friday.
The UN noted that Israeli forces have already destroyed or severely damaged at least 12 religious buildings in Lebanon, including 11 Muslim facilities and a Greek Catholic church. Reports have found that Israeli forces have carried out controlled detonations of several religious sites.
“All willful damage or destruction of buildings dedicated to religion is prohibited,” the UN office said. “[C]ivilian objects, buildings dedicated to religion and other sites of cultural significance are protected from attack under international humanitarian law unless they become military objectives.”
If Israeli forces attack the heritage site, it will be one of the many sites with cultural, religious or historic significance it has damaged or destroyed amid its genocide of Gaza and assault on Lebanon.
UNESCO has found, from preliminary estimates, that Israeli forces have damaged at least 69 cultural and religious sites in Gaza. Other estimates are far higher, with one organization estimating that at least 195 heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed as of January, just two months into Israel’s genocide. The number is likely far higher now.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed about 2,800 people in Lebanon, including 166 children.
Like they’ve done across wide swaths of Gaza, Israeli forces appear to be attempting to entirely raze communities in south Lebanon, rendering them uninhabitable.
According to a The Washington Post analysis, Israeli forces have damaged or destroyed nearly a quarter of all buildings in south Lebanon in the past year of bombardments. Nearly 6,000 buildings have been affected by Israel’s attacks, the publication found in an analysis of satellite data, with almost 80 percent of the damage being done since Israel’s ground invasion in Lebanon began in October.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.