The capital of an ancient column at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Lebanese port city of Tyre was blown away by an explosion.
In another city in the south of the country, a place of worship for both Muslims and Christians was destroyed. Israeli strikes caused heavy damage to a Mamluk-era market in the city of Nabatieh, and Israeli troops have leveled centuries-old Lebanese towns along the border. This was told by Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh to Reuters.
Israel's nearly four-month air campaign, accompanied by a ground offensive, which Israeli forces say was aimed at the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed movement "Hezbollah", has destroyed important cultural heritage sites in southern Lebanon, Salameh said.
Despite a ceasefire that took effect a week ago, authorities have not yet been able to draw a full picture of the damage, as Israeli troops still occupy an area about 10 kilometers deep inside Lebanon that the Lebanese do not have access to, Salameh added.
"We cannot work in the shadow of occupation," he stressed.
The occupied area includes the medieval Beaufort Castle, as well as centuries-old villages where Christians, Shiites and Sunnis, and their places of worship were there.
"There are villages that have been completely destroyed by bulldozers", Salameh said.
Even ancient cities outside the zone have been subjected to air strikes, including Tyre and Nabataean. Heavy bombing has hit the city of Tebnin, raising concerns that the Crusader fortress there has also been damaged, he said.
"Cultural heritage is not just Roman and Phoenician antiquities", Salameh said. "Cultural heritage also includes historical buildings, archaeological sites and buildings with a cultural function," he added.
In response to questions from Reuters, the Israeli military said it did not aim to "cause excessive damage to civilian infrastructure and only strikes when militarily necessary, taking into account the safety of its citizens" - a reference to residents of northern Israel who have been attacked by Hezbollah.
They said they had taken into account the presence of "sensitive sites" and had followed a "strict approval procedure as required". Israel has accused Hezbollah of placing weapons at the Beaufort Castle, a claim denied by Lebanese authorities.
Flights between Tehran and Dubai will resume today, Iranian media reported today, after several weeks of interruption due to the war in the Middle East and Iranian strikes in the Gulf, Agence France-Presse reported.
“In order to strengthen air links on these busy routes, the necessary measures must be taken to open the Tehran-Dubai route from Imam Khomeini Airport in the capital,” its director Ramin Kashefazar was quoted as saying by state television and other local media.
This evening, tickets could be purchased on the website of the Iranian airline “Sepehran” for a flight scheduled to depart tomorrow at 10:40 a.m. local time.
During the Middle East war, from February 28 until the ceasefire came into effect on April 8, Dubai International Airport, along with US military facilities in the Gulf and civilian infrastructure in the Gulf kingdoms from Kuwait to Oman, were the target of several drone attacks.
Iran said the strikes were in response to the US-Israeli military offensive that began on February 28 against its territory.
Dubai Airport, which before the war was the second busiest in the world in terms of passenger traffic after Atlanta (USA), saw traffic fall by 66 percent in March compared to the same month last year.
Gulf airports such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha have built their business models on passenger transfers, taking advantage of their location at the crossroads of routes to and from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania.
The virtual standstill of these airports in the first weeks of the conflict caused chaos in global air transport.
A Qatari citizen died after being seriously injured by shrapnel from “military operations in the region”, in which a vessel carrying him and another person disappeared, the Qatari Interior Ministry said, as quoted by Reuters.
The ministry said the other person - a foreign national of Arab origin residing in Qatar - was injured and added that it had located the missing vessel early this morning after a search operation that began yesterday. The injured person has been admitted to hospital and is in stable condition.
Qatari authorities did not specify the location of the incident or say whether the shrapnel was linked to Iranian drones targeting US military facilities in Kuwait and Bahrain earlier today.
However, they said that during a routine inspection by the Coast Guard, it was found that a vessel with two people on board had not returned at the appointed time and a search operation had been launched.
“In the early hours of Sunday morning, the search and rescue team found the vessel. "During the operation, the death of a Qatari national from shrapnel wounds sustained as a result of military operations in the area was confirmed," the ministry said in a statement.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Earlier today, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had launched ballistic missile and drone strikes on US military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain. Tehran called the actions a response to the US military operation.