Ancient UNESCO Sites in Tyros, Lebanon Threatened by Israel-Hezbollah Fighting

The historic port city of Tyros, continuously inhabited for about 5,000 years and home to UNESCO World Heritage sites, faces severe danger as Israeli strikes target the area in the ongoing conflict with the pro‑Iranian Hezbollah militia. Lebanese authorities issued an evacuation order for the Mediterranean city, including its Christian quarter, after artillery and air attacks placed the Roman ruins and other archaeological treasures at risk.

Local heritage guard Mohammed (or Mustafa) Nagdi, who has spent years protecting Tyros’s ancient monuments, fled to nearby Sidon with his family. He warned that metal fragments now litter the columns of a two‑thousand‑year‑old Roman structure and that the continuous bombardment could cause irreversible damage. Lebanon’s culture minister Ghassan Salamé has appealed to UNESCO and condemned the strikes as a "cultural genocide" aimed at destroying South Lebanon’s historic fabric.

The fighting, part of a broader Israel‑Hezbollah confrontation, threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of residents and could turn Tyros into an uninhabitable zone, jeopardising one of the world’s oldest continuously settled cities.