TYRE, Lebanon — Twelve miles north of Lebanon’s border with Israel, the ancient coastal city of Tyre has become an unlikely battleground in Israel’s war with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Tyre, one of Lebanon’s biggest cities, is a coastal hub and in peacetime a thriving tourist destination.

But in late May, before the current ceasefire began, Israel started targeting the entire city, apart from a small, largely Christian enclave on the seaside, saying it was hitting Hezbollah fighters. Thousands of people streamed into that neighborhood — the last relatively safe place in the city.

Days later, Israel warned residents of the historic Christian neighborhood it could attack there too.

The warning, which came without proof that Hezbollah was operating in the Christian quarter, left residents of the ancient city without any safe haven.

Israeli airstrikes hit residential areas in Tyre on June 7, 2026. The escalation between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced more than one million people, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis and complicating ceasefire efforts.

Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR

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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR

A resident walks through the nearly empty, ghost-like streets of Tyre during an evacuation warning on June 7, 2026.

Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR

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Diego Ibarra Sánchez for NPR

An ancient city facing new destruction

On a recent Sunday, a low-flying Israeli drone buzzed over Tyre’s Antiquities neighborhood, where Israeli airstrikes had hit the previous week. The area is named after ancient Roman sites, as well as those associated with Alexander the Great, who built a causeway to conquer the island city.

Later in the day, an Israeli airstrike on a century-old house near the gate of the ancient port — a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site — damaged ancient columns and toppled stone capitals.

On one of the neighborhood blocks, previous strikes over the past two weeks had flattened every building. In a landscape drained of color, building rubble and dead, blackened trees were coated with grey concrete dust.

Metallic letters from an upscale beauty salon were hanging by wires over windows with the glass blown out.

“You can see they destroyed everything,” said Ali al-Ra’i, a local policeman. “This building fell, and that building.”

Ra’i grew increasingly nervous as the high-pitched whine of an Israeli drone grew louder. “They are above us now. It’s dangerous,” he said, before urging everyone to leave.