The United Nationsย cultural agency on Friday updated its list of World Heritage in Danger, with locations including a Lebanese castle that Israeli forces recently captured as well as an archaeological site in the occupied West Bank, amid Israeli objections.
The decision was made during a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) meeting in South Korea’s Busan.
Members agreed that five castles in Lebanon’s Mount Amel, including Beaufort Castle, and the West Bank’s Sebastia would both go on the agency’s World Heritage List and List of World Heritage in Danger.
The decision came after reviewing the nominations on an emergency basis, citing ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry had urged the committee to reject the designation efforts, calling the nominations a “weaponization of cultural heritage.”
What do we know about the UNESCO-designated sites?
Beaufort Castle is a Crusader fortress also known as Qalaat al-Shakif. Israeli forces captured the fortress in May amid their military operations in southern Lebanon as part of the fight against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
The mountainous area where Beaufort and the other five Jabal Amel listed castles are located has come under repeated Israeli bombardment during the war.
UNESCO said the fortresses had sustained damage and faced ongoing threats from the conflict “serious enough to justify resorting to an emergency procedure.”
Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salame told the French AFP news agency that only two of the castles were “within the Lebanese government’s reach” and accused Israel of having already destroyed Shamaa Castle and of threatening to demolish Beaufort.
Salame described the UNESCO listing as a “remarkable achievement in the effort to protect these important Lebanese historical landmarks.”
Meanwhile, Sebastia, the other site added on Friday, lies near the West Bank city of Nablus. It is thought to be the ancient Israeli and later Roman city of Samaria, with archaeological remains spanning the Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods.
Israel still uses the name Samaria to refer to the northern West Bank.
Israeli authorities have developed an interest in the site in recent years, in 2025 taking control of around 200 hectares of Palestinian land nearby for what it calls preservation and development purposes.
The site is important to the Palestinian tourism industry and threatened by the recent Israeli actions, including an Israelis-only road, a fence and entry fees.
“The integrity of the site is currently threatened by an expropriation project aimed at subdividing the property and creating the ‘Samaria’ (Shomron) National Park,” UNESCO said.
Sebastia’s nomination to the UNESCO list was first submitted by the Palestinian delegation to UNESCO in 2012. It argued the site remains largely undeveloped under Israeli control and requires additional conservation despite attracting tourists.
Adel Naim Daoud Atieh, a member of the Palestinian delegation to UNESCO, said the World Heritage designation rewards the perseverance of Sebastia’s residentsย “who have protected this extraordinary site through generations, despite occupation, restrictionsย and repeated attempts to separate them from their own heritage.”
How has Israel responded?
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar slammed UNESCO for the listings, calling that of Samaria in particular an attempt at “erasing and denying the Jewish connection to this land.”
A member of the Israeli delegation, attending the Busan meetings as an observer after Israel withdrew from the organization in 2019, said it was a “shame politicization has ruined UNESCO and led to mockery of history.”
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry accused the Palestinian delegation of waging a “hostile, one-sided campaign” at UNESCO by falsely portraying Sebastia as an area facing an emergency.
Addressing the listing of the Lebanese Beaufort Castle, the Israeli Foreign Ministry alleged that Hezbollah turned it into a military stronghold by building tunnels beneath the site and launching rockets from the area.
At Friday’s meeting, a Lebanese delegate said the castles have been used “only for cultural and tourism purposes” since Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000 and accused Israeli media of circulating images of tourist facilities as military tunnels.
Israel’s withdrawal from UNESCO was owed to what it called bias against it, accusing the UN agency of downplaying its historical ties to the Holy Land.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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