'Enhanced protection' of Lebanon's cultural sites in consideration: UNESCO

The United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, has made arrangements to consider the "enhanced protection" of Lebanon's cultural sites from Israeli attacks.

The UN agency said on Thursday that it would hold a meeting later this month to consider enhanced protection of cultural sites in Lebanon as the Israeli regime forces continue its ruthless bombardment of Lebanese targets.

The UNESCO committee will hold an extraordinary session at the UN cultural agency's Paris headquarters on November 18 to consider adding the country's heritage sites to UNESCO's international list of structures under "enhanced protection,"  it said.

UN chief: Israeli attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'

The UN chief strongly condemns attacks on peacekeepers in southern Lebanon as a violation of international law and a war crime.

At the extraordinary UNESCO session, authorities at the international body responsible for preserving the world’s heritage sites will ask officials for more funding to create the means to safeguard the endangered historical structures faced with imminent destruction in the devastating Israeli attacks across Lebanon.

UNESCO oversees six registered World Heritage sites in Lebanon, including Roman ruins in Baalbek and Tyre.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati called on Monday for a ceasefire "to protect our country's cultural heritage, including the ancient archeological sites of Baalbek and Tyre."

Mikati called on the UN Security Council to "take swift and decisive action to protect these historical treasures."

On Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that the humanitarian situation caused by the Israeli attacks on Lebanon had “reached a critical point.”

About one-fourth of Lebanon's population has been displaced across Lebanon and into neighboring countries, it said, adding that Lebanese women comprised the majority of those who had been rendered homeless within the country.

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