Two Israeli soldiers have been jailed for 30 days and stripped of their combat roles following the destruction of a statue of Jesus Christ in a Christian village in southern Lebanon, with the Israeli military now confirming that a further six soldiers were present at the scene and failed to intervene or report the incident.
The punishment follows the emergence over the weekend of a photograph showing one of the soldiers apparently wielding a sledgehammer against the religious icon in the village of Debel. One soldier carried out the destruction while a second was penalised for photographing the act rather than stopping it.
A statement issued by the IDF on Tuesday confirmed the findings of a formal inquiry and announced that the six additional soldiers present during the incident had been summoned for what the military described as “clarification discussions,” after which further disciplinary measures would be determined at command level. “The inquiry determined that the soldiers’ conduct completely deviated from IDF orders and values,” the statement read. “The IDF expresses deep regret over the incident and emphasises that its operations in Lebanon are directed solely against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation and other terrorist groups, and not against Lebanese civilians.”
According to a post on X, the IDF has since replaced the destroyed statue. Fadi Falfel, a priest in Debel, said the cross formed part of a small shrine in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village. Debel is among dozens of villages in southern Lebanon now under effective Israeli occupation as the country’s military conducts operations against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, which had been firing rockets at Israel in support of Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already condemned the original photograph “in the strongest terms,” describing his reaction as one of shock and sadness. Israel and Lebanon agreed a US-brokered ceasefire on Thursday, intended to bring an end to the fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah.
