BAALBEK, Lebanon, 25 July 2006 — The tourist fortunes of Baalbek, a historic city with Roman ruins dating back more than 2,000 years, had slowly been reviving. But now it is yet another casualty of Israel’s offensive on Lebanon. The eastern town, a UNESCO World Heritage protected site, has taken many direct hits in nearly two weeks of air strikes that have emptied its streets and put an end to summer festivities that were in full swing two weeks ago.
On Thursday, those attacks reached a fierce level when Israeli jets lobbed 24 tons of bombs on the center of the town, and on Friday Lebanon’s culture minister called on UNESCO to protect the country’s archaeological treasures.
“Already fragile ancient structures are being threatened by repeated explosions and they risk being hit directly. Your immediate intervention is necessary to prevent this situation from becoming catastrophic,” Culture Minister Tareq Mitri appealed in a letter to UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura.
“Baalbek has never been targeted for so many raids at the same time — around 20 in an hour,” a Red Cross official, Assad Karra, told AFP. So far, 35 people have been killed and 200 wounded in and around Baalbek. One central neighborhood in particular has been repeatedly hit. Several two- and three-story buildings have been flattened into crumpled masonry.
“Nothing remains of Baalbek,” said Fatima, a 15-year-old girl sheltering in a hotel in front of the majestic Roman ruins of the Temple of Jupiter that were this town’s principal attraction. “They’ve destroyed everything,” added Norma, 20, next to her. “It’s a miracle we’re alive.” The wounded have been taken to Baalbek’s hospital, but medical supplies there are running low. “We need medicine for the adults and for the children,” a pharmacist, Karra, pleaded over the phone to the Red Cross in Beirut. “And we don’t have any more medicine for blood pressure and diabetes,” he said.
Meanwhile, Cyprus appealed for urgent international help yesterday as tens of thousands of evacuees from the Israeli offensive threatened to overwhelm the small resort island’s infrastructure. “So far the situation is under control but we have reached our limit,” Communications Minister Haris Thrassou said as the number of evacuees reaching the Mediterranean island of less than a million people hit 35,000.
