Southern Lebanon – In parallel to the military war launched by the Israeli occupation on Southern LebanonThere is a systematic sabotage of human, civilizational and cultural heritage that affected dozens of historical and religious sites and buildings that have turned into rubble.
The Israeli occupation army was not violatedBlue Line Between Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian territories, a passing event, the occupation soldiers carried out destiny sabotage operations against a number of archaeological and historical places, whose counterparts in the world have decreased and protected by international covenants.
The occupation soldiers destroyed the Bir al -Nabi Shuaib area in the border town of Blaida in the district of Marjayoun, and they dried the historical water basins, the square and the road leading to wells.
This criminal behavior brings us back to the recent Israeli war on Lebanon, where the occupation deliberately destroyed the streets, markets and heritage lanes, in addition to targeting several artifacts classified and protected by the World Organization for Education, Science and Culture.UNESCOWithout indifference to international covenants that protect historical and archaeological sites.
Targeting the history of the region
Tarf, the son of the town of Blida, who is over 80 years old, tells how he returned to his town after the war ended, to find it in a large percentage, and that the most painful scene of the historic mosque in the town, which was swept away by the occupation with the heritage lane, which included dozens of old rocky homes.
Tarf talks to Al -Jazeera Net about the ancient history of the town of Blida, which includes 365 wells of water, including what was buried with time, and some of them are present to this day, stressing that these wells cannot be estimated their time age, but some historians have indicated that since the kings of the (Phoenicians) who inhabited the region.
Tarf says that the wells are engraved in the rock in a wonderful way, making us wonder about the type of tools that were used in digging, noting that these wells were not only for irrigation, but some were used as a tank for oils and agricultural products at that time.
The town mosque
As for the building of the town mosque in Blaid, it has its story, it is an old building that is more than 2000 years old, which was initially a military fortress, and then turned into a temple that followed the religions that arrived in the southern Lebanon region, until it became a mosque over time.
Mukhtar Balida Ali Ibrahim, in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, confirms that the archaeological mosque in the town visited him by a Lebanese-Syrian Antiquities Committee and estimated Omar Al-Bunah, and stated that it was basically a military fortress, through the inscriptions in it, as well as through observatories and guard points that were on its walls.
Ibrahim states that in the year 1948, Israel tried to demolish the mosque by bombing its western column, but it did not fall, but the people returned and restored it again by building a concrete pillar, and after liberating the border area in 2000 from the Israeli occupation, the mosque was subjected to full maintenance.
He adds that the occupation soldiers destroyed the mosque completely during the recent aggression, and all the homes surrounding it were washed away and nothing remains.
On this mosque, Taraf speaks, stressing that various inscriptions were decorating its walls, and they symbolized the civilizations that followed it, “was a masterpiece, but the occupation soldiers insisted on destroying it with all the heritage lane, the scene of the mosque, which is destroyed by the heart.”
Benjamin shrine
In the town of Muhaibib, the district of Marjayoun, the shrine of the Prophet Muhaibib (Benjamin), the son of the Prophet Yaqoub, is located, according to what he believes, and this place was a destination for tourists and the Lebanese from all regions.
This brilliant town was also not sponsored by the barbarism of the occupation, so the Israeli army fully blown it, and equated its homes with the shrine on the ground, and it was documented on its video tape that was published on October 16, 2024.
The son of the town, Shakib Jaber, talks to Al -Jazeera Net about his memories in his town, whose upbringing was associated with the existence of the shrine, and was named after him, and this place was a destination for visitors from various Lebanese regions, which contributed to improving the town’s economic and social status, but Israel in its last war on Lebanon destroyed the town and the entire place, and its people were displaced and did not return to this day.
Systematic destruction
Tarf indicates that these targeting of Blaida and for the whole region of the south through which the occupation aims to change the features of the region and tamper with its history and obscure it, because these archaeological landmarks prove that its southern people are present on it thousands of years before its entity, calling on the Ministry of Culture to work to rebuild what the occupation destroyed, in order to preserve the identity of the region and its ancient history.
As for Jaber, he believes that the targeting of the occupation of these historical monuments falls within his policy, which aims to kill all aspects of life in the southern region, “these landmarks were a destination for citizens and tourists, and turned the region into an important attraction,” according to his description.
The director of archaeological sites in southern Lebanon at the Ministry of Culture, Ali Badawi, confirms, in an interview with Al -Jazeera Net, that dozens of archaeological and heritage sites were destroyed or damaged during the Israeli war on Lebanon in general and on the south in particular.
He continues that most of the urban and religious heritage in the region was damaged during the war, and among the most prominent of these sites is the shrine of the Prophet Shuma, in which a military clash occurred when the occupation army brought an Israeli archaeological scientist inside the Maqam for propaganda targets.
Badawi adds that among the phrase that was targeted by the Blaida Mosque, the Maqam al -Muqalib, the Dardagia Church, the Yaron Church, the mosques and other churches, as well as the old neighborhoods were damaged, so several villages such as Safed and Al -Rozah, and some of them were completely clouded.
In response to the Israeli aggression, the Lebanese Ministry of Culture worked to find a pressure paper and raise the level of legal protection for these sites, and indeed the Ministry was able to enter 34 archaeological sites to the UNESCO Protection List, according to international agreements to protect sites during armed conflicts, despite the ministry’s knowledge that this protection may not be sufficient, some sites were exposed to damage even after declaring them as protected sites.
Badawi stressed the need to secure the financial resources necessary to rebuild what was destroyed in order to preserve the identity of the region, and revive the collective memory by returning the historical and archaeological areas to what they were before the war.