Smoke rises after an Israeli strike next to the Crusader-period Beaufort Castle, as seen from the Israeli side of the border in the Upper Galilee, northern Israel, in June. File Photo by Atef Safadi/EPA
BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 31 (UPI) -- Lebanese President Joseph Aoun condemned Israel on Friday for targeting infrastructure and archaeological sites that UNESCO recently added to its World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger.
Aoun said such violations constitute "a highly dangerous escalation" and threaten progress of negotiations between the two countries.
He was referring to massive explosions near the historic Beaufort Castle, where Israeli officials said they used 700 tons of explosives to destroy Hezbollah's underground tunnel network.
Aoun said in a statement that, according to the National Center for Geophysics, the explosions generated ground tremors equivalent to a 3.8-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale, describing them as "a highly dangerous escalation and a blatant violation of existing commitments" with Israel.
