Israeli attacks threaten Hezbollah stronghold Baalbek and its 3,000-year-old Roman ruins

Israel has stepped up its bombings of Lebanon’s historic city of Baalbek, famous for its Roman temples, following an evacuation warning for 400,000 people in the city and nearby areas.

Israeli forces and Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for more than a year in parallel with the Gaza war; This is the deadliest surge since their great war in 2006.

On Wednesday, Israel launched heavy air strikes on Baalbek and surrounding villages in the eastern Bekaa region, following an evacuation warning for the city and its surroundings.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese, including mostly Shiite Muslims and those who took refuge in the city from other regions, fled after the warning.

The city is home to ancient Roman ruins and is also an important agricultural and transportation hub for Lebanon. The UN is calling on Wednesday to end the destruction of cultural heritage that can never be renewed.

Why is Baalbek a target?

It is known that the Baalbek region is the political stronghold of Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim group supported by Iran.

Bilal Raad, regional head of Lebanon’s civil defense, told Reuters after the evacuation order that the mostly volunteer force appealed to citizens to leave the area via a megaphone after receiving phone calls from someone identifying themselves as being from the Israeli army.

“People are everywhere, surrounded by each other, the whole city is in a panic trying to figure out where to go, there is a huge traffic jam,” he said before the bombardment.

Some of the areas they fled are already filled with people previously displaced by the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict.

Antoine Habchi, a member of parliament representing the Christian-majority city of Deir al-Ahmar, northwest of Baalbek, told Reuters that more than 10,000 people had already taken refuge in homes, schools and churches.

The Lebanese Ministry of Health said that 19 people, including eight women, died in Israeli attacks on two towns in the Baalbek region on Wednesday.

Historical significance of Baalbek

Over the centuries, Lebanon has witnessed the rise and fall of empires, from the Persians to the Ottomans and Byzantines.

The city, which is a vibrant tourism center due to its historical importance, has been a vital trade center connecting the East and the West.

Originally a Phoenician settlement dedicated to the worship of the god Baal, Baalbek was known as Heliopolis. Later, with the arrival of Alexander the Great and subsequent Hellenistic rule, the city experienced the fusion of Greek architectural elements.

The name “Baalbek” is derived from the words “Baal”, meaning god, and “Bek/Bekaa”, meaning the Bekaa Valley, and reflects both religious and geographical importance.

The city, which was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1984, is home to some of the best-preserved Roman temples.

The 11,000-year-old Phoenician city became one of the most famous sanctuaries of the ancient world, with pilgrims flocking to the city to worship at the temples of Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus, known as the Romanized Triad of Heliopolis.

Risk to Lebanon’s historical sites

Concerns about Lebanon’s historical sites have increased since the beginning of the attack.

The UN called on Wednesday for the protection of cultural heritage sites.

In a post on social media platform

Lebanese Minister of Culture Mohammed Mortada also wrote to UNESCO, demanding urgent international steps to be taken to protect cultural sites in Lebanon.

The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict calls for the protection of cultural property, such as archaeological sites and architectural monuments, both in times of peace and during armed conflict.

The commitments made by the 82 states party to the convention include “the marking of certain important buildings and monuments with the distinctive emblem of the convention”. The emblem of the convention is a famous blue shield, known internationally as the Blue Shield, as stated in the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention, which the Lebanese Parliament ratified in 2019.