PARIS: The UN’s cultural agency on Friday placed a Lebanese castle recently seized by Israeli forces and an archaeological site in the occupied West Bank on its list of World Heritage in Danger.
Beaufort Castle, a Crusader fortress also known as Qalaat al-Shakif, was captured by Israeli forces in May.
It is one of five castles in the Jabal Amel area of southern Lebanon listed together by Unesco. The mountainous area has come under repeated Israeli bombardment during the war.
Unesco said the fortresses had sustained damage and faced ongoing threats from the conflict “serious enough to justify resorting to an emergency procedure”.
Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salame said the endangered listing was “a remarkable achievement in the effort to protect these important Lebanese historical landmarks”.
He said only two of the castles were “within the Lebanese government’s reach” and accused Israel of having already destroyed Shamaa Castle and threatening to demolish Beaufort.
Also added to the in-danger list was Sebastia, near the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
The site is thought to be the ancient Israeli and later Roman city of Samaria, whose name Israel still uses to refer to the northern West Bank.
In recent years, Israeli authorities have taken an interest in the site, which sits near the modern Palestinian town of Sebastia, but is in an area controlled exclusively by Israel.
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