The memory of victories following harsh periods of endurance has created a popular certainty that scenes of rubble are merely preludes to reconstruction, and that what has been destroyed will be rebuilt with greater dignity. This certainty rests on the ‘credibility of the resistance’, which has demonstrated, in prior instances, the truth of its slogans — particularly the promise that ‘it will return better than before’.
—  Dr Mohammad Aloush for Al Akhbar
Baalbek is the largest city in eastern Lebanon. In November 2024, Israel issued a citywide evacuation (80,000 population), leading to widespread panic as thousands of people tried to flee. Later in that month, a shaky ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon was agreed upon, and the next morning, the Al-Qaeda march against Damascus began. Since November 2024, Israel has violated that ceasefire thousands of times with daily drone assassinations, occupation of Lebanese territory, bombing of civilian infrastructure including schools and hospitals and an endless pressure for Hezbollah to disarm — supported by Saudi Arabia, the new Al-Qaeda regime in Damascus, Washington, and Tel-Aviv.
This ancient Phoenician city is the cradle of some of the world’s best preserved Roman ruins, including the Temple of Bacchus. Baalbek was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Seeped in history and the remnants of Roman civilisation, this city has been the target of Zionist violence and savagery on many occasions since the establishment of the barbaric Zionist genocidal project in the early 20th century, incubated by the British in cooperation with the Rothschilds.
The Baalbek site is thought to have originally been Phoenician, with settlement dating back as far as the 3rd millennium BC. In the 1st millennium BC the site was chosen as the site for a temple dedicated to the God Baal, from which the city takes its name. In the year 334 BC Alexander the Great conquered the Near East and the city was renamed Heliopolis, a name which was retained by subsequent Roman conquerors — Helios, Greek for sun and Polis, Greek for City — City of the Sun.Â
Like so many other towns and cities relentlessly targeted by ‘Israel’, Baalbek has a long history of resistance against occupation and colonialist projects through the ages. Added to this, Baalbek is situated alongside the abundant freshwater source of Ras Al Ain. Waters from the Ain-Juj spring, nine kilometres away, were drawn into Baalbek by canal. These two big sources feed into the Litani and Aassi Rivers that flow in opposite directions in the Bekaa. For Israel, a primary resource hunt in the region is for water sources: Golan territories, southern Syria, Jordan, the Litani River in Lebanon, and perhaps the Euphrates in Iraq, should the David’s Corridor come to fruition linking southern Syria to Iraq via Syria’s eastern border.
Recent Attacks on Baalbek Civilians
On 2 April, I went to Baalbek to see two sites recently bombed by Israel without any evacuation warning. Civilian homes reduced to roof crags and rubble landscapes dotted with personal belongings of the dead and injured.
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