United States-Israeli strikes on Iran have caused significant damage to multiple UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These locations are legally protected by international law under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

“Any damage to cultural property, irrespective of the people it belongs to, is a damage to the cultural heritage of all humanity, because every people contributes to the world's culture,” reads the preamble to the 1954 Hague Convention.

On March 2, Tehran’s Golestan Palace, was damaged—its Hall of Mirrors shattered—by shock and debris following an airstrike to Arag Square. The walled palace, which dates back hundreds of years, is one of the oldest monuments in the Iranian capital. It received most of its characteristic features in the 19th century, during the influential Qajar era, when it became the residence and seat of power of the ruling family.

“Golestan Palace represents a unique and rich testimony of the architectural language and decorative art during the Qajar era…parts of the palace complex can be seen as the origins of the modern Iranian artistic movement,” UNESCO stated.

Images and videos from the Associated Press reveal broken windows, archways, and molding following the attacks. Shattered glass covers the palace’s floors.

On March 4, the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield—an organization dedicated to protecting cultural property—released a statement urging the U.S. government and Israeli Defense Forces to “take immediate and concrete steps to identify, map, and protect cultural sites throughout the region, especially in Iran, in full compliance with international humanitarian law.”

Per the New York Times, Israeli strikes targeting the governor’s building in Isfahan impacted the Ali Qapu Palace and Chehel Sotoun palace and garden, both situated on the Naqsh-e Jahan Square—all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries.,

The Chehel Sotoun pavilion, which is decorated with intricate murals depicting Persian court life and historical scenes, sustained critical damage. Videos released by Iranian state media show blown-out windows, cracked walls, and damage to the muqarnas, a type of ornamental vaulting in Islamic architecture.

The strikes on Isfahan caused injury to another UNESCO-listed site, the Jameh Mosque, which dates back to the 8th century.

Two days prior to the attacks on Isfahan, U.S.-Israeli forces hit the perimeter of the Falak-ol-Aflak Castle, a UNESCO site in the city of Khorramabad, according to the head of the province’s heritage department Ata Hassanpour. Fortunately, the castle remains intact, though offices associated with the heritage department and adjacent archeological and anthropological museums were destroyed, per the Guardian.

“War advocates say that whatever is destroyed, we will build a better one later. Okay, build a new Ali Qapu and Chehel Sotun and Golestan Palace,” wrote Iranian scholar Mojtaba Najafi in an X post. “For me, ancient monuments are as important as human lives. Because they connect me to my past, and their destruction means that my memory is destroyed. The lost life of a citizen cannot be rebuilt.”

“These are extensions of people’s histories. Their significance has to do with the cultural identity of a people and place,” says Boston-based Iranian architect Nader Tehrani. “These are to Iran what the Palazzo Vecchio or the entire Piazza della Signoria is to Florence, Italy. They have amazing structures, tilework, and crafts that frankly don’t exist today and would be very difficult to reconstruct. I liken it to when the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan or a Russian missile struck the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, Ukraine.”

As the bombing continues, the number of historic sites damaged in Iran has risen, with reports at press time of over a hundred cultural heritage sites impacted.