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

Israel has stepped up bombing in the historic Lebanese city of Baalbek, famous for its Roman temples, after an evacuation warning for 400,000 people in the city and nearby regions.

Israeli forces and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for more than a year, parallel to the war in Gaza, in the deadliest escalation since the major war they fought in 2006.

On Wednesday, Israel began heavy airstrikes on Baalbek and surrounding villages in the eastern Bekaa region, following an evacuation warning for the city and its suburbs.

Tens of thousands of mainly Shia Muslim Lebanese, including many who had sought shelter in the city from other areas, fled after the warning was issued.

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

Why Baalbek is a target

The Baalbek region is known as a political stronghold of Hezbollah, the Shiite Muslim group backed by Iran.

After the evacuation order, Bilal Raad, regional head of Lebanon’s Civil Defense, told Reuters that the largely volunteer force had called on residents to leave through megaphones after receiving calls from someone identifying himself as a member of the Israeli army.

“People are all over each other, the whole city is panicking trying to figure out where to go, there’s a huge traffic jam,” he said before the bombing.

Some of the areas they are fleeing to are already full of people previously displaced by the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.

Antoine Habchi, a lawmaker representing Christian-majority Deir al-Ahmar in northwest Baalbek, told Reuters that more than 10,000 people were already seeking shelter in homes, schools and churches.

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Israeli strikes killed 19 people, including eight women, in two towns in the Baalbek region on Wednesday.

Historical significance of Baalbek

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

The city, which has been a vibrant tourist attraction thanks to its historical significance, has been an important trading center linking East and West.

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

The name “Baalbek” is derived from “Baal”, meaning deity, and “Bek/Bekaa”, which refers to the Bekaa Valley, reflecting both its religious and geographical significance.

Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, the city is home to some of the best-preserved Roman temples.

The 11,000-year-old Phoenician city became one of the most celebrated 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 historic sites

Since the start of the offensive, concerns about Lebanon’s historic sites have increased.

The UN urged the protection of cultural heritage on Wednesday.

In a post on social media platform They are the #heritage of all humanity and should never be targeted.”

Lebanese Culture Minister Mohammad Mortada had also written a letter to UNESCO asking for urgent international action to protect Lebanese cultural sites.

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