Israel is escalating its bombardment of Lebanon, leveling numerous buildings, including the offices of Lebanese news station Al Mayadeen. The Israeli military has also attacked the ancient city of Tyre, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, and killed three Lebanese soldiers in a strike in southern Lebanon, all while continuing to defy international calls for a ceasefire. “What we’re seeing is a complete degeneration into a war that has no rules, that respects no international conventions. There’s one side in this war that has complete impunity,” says Lebanese sociologist Rima Majed in Beirut. “Israel is targeting civilians in most cases. … This is just terrorism.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We begin today’s show in Lebanon, where Israel continues to bombard the southern suburbs of Beirut. Health officials report Israel carried out at least 17 strikes overnight, leveling numerous buildings, including the offices of Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese news station. Lebanon’s National News Agency described last night’s attacks as the “most violent” in the area in recent weeks. Israel also killed three Lebanese soldiers in a strike in the southern part of the country. Israel continues to defy international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon.

This comes as French President Emmanuel Macron hosted an aid conference for Lebanon in Paris. Macron reiterated his call for a ceasefire and vowed to send over $100 million in humanitarian aid to Lebanon.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Beirut, Lebanon, where we’re joined by Rima Majed. She’s an assistant professor of sociology at the American University of Beirut.

Thanks so much for being with us. If you can start off by talking about what’s happening in one of the oldest cities in the world, in Tyre in southern Lebanon?

RIMA MAJED: Yes. Thank you so much, Amy, for having me on the show again.

What was happening yesterday was very, very disheartening, but it’s really a crime of — you know, of a global scale. Tyre is a very central city in terms of archaeology, of history. And, you know, this has been the second city. So, Tyre is a city that is in the south and that is inhabited by a large population. This is the second city in the south, large city in the south, that is being destructed in a systematic way.

Yesterday, what we’ve — reports say that the old ruins of Tyre have been hit by strikes. We have seen similar reports from other archaeological and historical sites, such as Baalbek, before. These are ruins that have survived thousands of years and that are being now destroyed by Israel. Unfortunately, we are not seeing the same alarm that we saw when other ruins, whether in Syria or Iraq, were targeted. And I think this is a very important issue to flag and to talk about.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Rima Majed, can you say why you think these attacks on these ruins have not received the kind of attention they should? Has UNESCO, for example, at least made a comment?

RIMA MAJED: Yeah, I think — I mean, I think the whole war on Lebanon is not receiving the attention that it needs to receive. I mean, there is a full-blown war that is taking very little space in the global media, for several reasons. One of them is, unfortunately, wars in this part of the world have become material for consumption, and there’s maybe media fatigue. But also, there’s an impunity that Israel has been enjoying since a long time, but that has become very flagrant since last year, where at this point what we cover is survival and bare life. I mean, there’s so much to cover in terms of people — you know, forced expulsions, people dying, that talking about ruins and history and archaeology is maybe seen not as a priority. But, I........

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