UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list reaches 56 sites as war in Gaza threatens Palestinian heritage and the Sudan civil war devastates Meroe

Summary

The UNESCO World Heritage in Danger list stood at 56 sites as of the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee held in New Delhi in June-July 2024. The Committee reviewed emergency situations affecting World Heritage properties in Ukraine (two sites inscribed on the Danger List in 2023 following Russian bombardment), Palestine (sites in Gaza, including heritage in Bethlehem, under threat from Israeli military operations), and Sudan (Meroe pyramids and Omdurman historic district damaged and inaccessible due to the civil war since April 2023). The Committee also addressed the climate threat to coral reef World Heritage sites, following the 2023-2024 global marine heatwave that produced unprecedented bleaching across the Great Barrier Reef, the Caribbean, and the Red Sea. New inscriptions at the New Delhi session added 24 new properties to the World Heritage List, bringing the total to 1,223 sites in 168 countries.

The split

UNESCO's management of politically sensitive cases, particularly the Gaza situation, required navigating member state divisions: Arab League member states and the Palestinian Authority called for immediate inscription of Gaza heritage sites on the Danger List and condemnation of attacks on cultural property; Israel contested the framing and argued that Hamas's use of civilian infrastructure complicated the application of international humanitarian law. On the climate front, Australia's continued lobbying to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the Danger List despite repeated severe bleaching events was criticised by environmental scientists and international conservation organisations as a political distortion of a scientific assessment process. ICOMOS's independent assessments of both the conflict and climate situations were more alarming than the Committee's formal resolutions.

By the numbers

• 56: sites on the World Heritage in Danger list as of 2024
• 1,223: total World Heritage sites in 168 countries (after 2024 additions)
• 24: new inscriptions at the 2024 New Delhi session
• 2: Ukrainian sites on the Danger List (inscribed 2023)
• ~80%: proportion of Great Barrier Reef surveyed reefs that experienced bleaching in 2024
• 2023: year Sudan's civil war began, cutting access to Meroe and Omdurman heritage

Why it matters

The World Heritage Danger List's expansion to 56 sites reflects a convergence of three accelerating threats: armed conflict in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Ethiopia; climate change driving bleaching, desertification, and sea-level rise affecting natural and coastal heritage sites; and development pressure from infrastructure, tourism, and urbanisation. The List functions as an international accountability mechanism, but its political management, where states with contested sites often lobby successfully to avoid inscription, means it systematically underrepresents the actual scale of endangered heritage. The simultaneous destruction of Palestinian and Ukrainian heritage by Russian and Israeli military operations in 2023-2024 tested the international community's capacity to apply consistent heritage protection standards across politically divergent conflicts.

What to watch

• Whether the 2025 WHC session (Sofia, Bulgaria) inscribes any Palestinian heritage sites from Gaza on the Danger List
• Whether Sudan's Meroe pyramids and Omdurman sites are formally inscribed on the Danger List following ICOMOS damage documentation
• Great Barrier Reef bleaching assessment for 2025 and whether UNESCO revisits the Danger List question under Australian political pressure
• Whether the Hague Convention on cultural property in armed conflict produces any prosecutorial action related to heritage destruction in Gaza or Ukraine