Lebanon's churches, mosques and archaeological sites damaged in Israeli strikes |
Culture
Lebanon's churches, mosques and archaeological sites damaged in Israeli strikes
Israeli strikes in Lebanon have damaged a growing number of cultural and religious sites, as sites in Israel have also sustained damage from Hezbollah and Iranian attacks.
Rosaleen Carroll
May 4, 2026
A man sits watching as Lebanese first responders search for human remains among the rubble the day after a house was targeted in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh, on May 1, 2026. — AFP via Getty Images
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Over the weekend, the Israeli military acknowledged it had damaged a Catholic convent in southern Lebanon, as strikes that have been ongoing since 2024 have increasingly affected cultural and religious sites across the country, with southern Lebanon bearing the brunt of the damage.
Photos of the Catholic convent run by the Sisters of the Holy Savior in the town of Yaroun in southern Lebanese after it was demolished by the Israeli army. pic.twitter.com/J9zo2XnQwS
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 3, 2026According to the Israeli military Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee, Israeli troops operating in the border village of Yaroun damaged a structure that it said “had no external signs indicating it was a religious building.” He added that “Hezbollah had launched rockets multiple times from within the complex toward Israeli territory.”
Adraee said forces moved to prevent further damage once they identified religious features inside the complex.
In a statement published on Saturday, L'Oeuvre d'Orient, a French Catholic organization, said that the convent “belonged to the Salvatorian Sisters, a........