Younis Tirawi / X
Statue of Jesus Christ destroyed in Lebanon
The IDF reiterated its commitment to “help the community put the statue back in place” – and had “no intention of damaging religious symbols.”
The image has been circulating widely on social media since Palestinian journalist Yunis Tirawi shared it on Sunday.
The photograph shows a Israelite soldier, wielding a long hammer, a hit the face of a statue of Jesus Christ crucified that had been removed from the cross, leaving it upside down on the ground. The photograph was taken in an open space, not inside a church.
According to Tirawi and the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the statue was located in the village of Debel, in the south-central region of Lebanon, which remains under Israeli military occupation.
The statue was this:
The statue of Jesus Christ in Debel, Lebanon, before Israel found it.
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti)
And here is the image of a soldier destroying the statue:
The statue of Jesus Christ in Debel, Lebanon, before Israel found it.
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti)
The case generated great indignation, as described by .
The Israeli army confirmed today that the soldier photographed destroying a statue of Jesus Christ with a hammer in a Christian village in southern Lebanon is a soldier Israelite
“After an initial analysis, it was determined that this photograph shows an Israeli soldier on a mission in southern Lebanon,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on the social network X.
“It will be taken appropriate measures against those involved, in accordance with the conclusions of the investigation”, added the army, guaranteeing that it was treating the matter with “the utmost rigor”.
The IDF reiterated its commitment to “help the community relocate the statue in its place” and stated that they had “no intention of damaging civil infrastructure, including religious buildings or symbols”.
Israeli troops remained in the area and demolished more houses on Sunday, according to the official Lebanese news agency ANI.
Israel took control of several areas in southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, after the pro-Iran movement attacked Israel on March 2, in retaliation for the Israeli-American offensive against Iran. One came into force in Lebanon on Friday.
