The UN’s cultural body said it will meet this month to consider enhanced protection of cultural sites in Lebanon as Israeli presses its bombardment campaign against Hezbollah, AFP reports.

A special session of a Unesco committee will be held in the Paris headquarters on November 18 to consider adding Lebanese cultural properties on the list of sites under “enhanced protection” as well as more funding, it said.

It warned the conflict between militant group Hezbollah and Israel presents “serious risks of irreparable damage to Lebanon’s world cultural and natural heritage”.

The body said the first remote analyses have not yet “identified visible damage” to the Unesco World Heritage Sites of the Roman temple of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon and the Phoenician port of Tyre in the south.

“However, these preliminary assessments will have to be complemented by more precise field inspections when the situation permits.”