Unesco grants enhanced protection to 39 Lebanese heritage sites as war escalates

Unesco granted “enhanced protection” to 39 cultural sites in Lebanon on 1 April during an extraordinary session of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as war between Israel and Hezbollah escalates. The designation provides the highest level of legal safeguards under the 1954 Hague Convention and unlocks more than $100,000 in emergency funding, while prohibiting the sites from being targeted or used for military purposes. Newly protected sites include Bekka Temple (a second-century Roman temple), the Lebanese National Library in Beirut, and Barsbay Tower in Tripoli. Lebanon had previously secured enhanced protection for 34 sites in November 2024, bringing the total to 73 sites; adviser Jad Tabet said the move is both a legal measure and a moral priority amid a conflict in which Lebanon’s health ministry reports at least 1,268 deaths since March and the UN reports more than 1.1 million displaced people.

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