"A shower of debris" : in Lebanon, the ancient ruins of Tire overtaken by the war

• The ruins of Tyre, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, were damaged by Israeli strikes, Lebanon’s Minister of Culture announced on Monday.
• Since the start of the war, the authorities have feared irreversible damage to one of the oldest cities in the Mediterranean world.

Tire under Israeli fire. This town located in the south of Lebanon was targeted this Tuesday, June 9 by the IDF, which suspects members of Hezbollah of hiding among the population. Spared for a while, the city is now regularly struck, raising fears of a worsening of the human toll but also of inestimable losses for the ancient ruins.

Located on the coast, about twenty kilometers from the border with Israel, Tire is in fact one of the oldest cities in the Mediterranean world. During Antiquity, the city was indeed an important Phoenician port. It is at the origin of the founding of colonies like Cadiz and Carthage and it is there that, according to legend, purple was discovered. The city was then conquered by Alexander the Great, before becoming a Greek city first, then a Roman one. It preserves important remains dating mainly from this period, as well as medieval constructions erected during the Crusades.

Sites protected by Unesco

Tire has two protected sites registered as UNESCO world heritage sites since 1984, including vestiges of the Roman Empire, a triumphal arch and a hippodrome dating from the 2nd century. These remains are at the heart of serious concerns on the part of the United Nations since the Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah.slight damage” had already been observed outside the archaeological site in November 2024.

Last March, as bombs rained again in Lebanon, UNESCO launched the “Blue Shields” initiative. It concerns around thirty sites in the country, including that of Tyre. It is first of all a message addressed to the Israeli army: the Hague Convention of 1954 indeed obliges the preservation of cultural property in the event of armed conflict.

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On March 6, an Israeli strike fell a few meters from the ancient pottery. Eight people, an entire family, were killed, according to the authorities. Their house was pulverized by the explosion. Macabre detail: the team that came to inspect possible damage to the monuments discovered human remains on the roof of the museum still under construction, the director of archaeological excavations told AFP.

The ruins of Tire have once again been damaged by strikes, Lebanon’s Minister of Culture announced on Monday. “Some archaeological artifacts were damaged when rubble hit them, as a shower of debris fell over a large area“, reaching “columns, capitals, column bases, mosaics“, to name a person responsible. This is the “greatest damage to the site since the start of the war“, regretted Ali Badaoui, director of archaeological sites in the south of the country. Since the start of the new war in Lebanon at the beginning of March between Hezbollah and Israel, Israeli strikes have caused more than 3,600 deaths according to the authorities.