The Israeli army punished two soldiers for desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon. The incident was revealed by a photo circulating on social networks.
The Israeli army (IDF) said on Monday it had condemned two soldiers after one was photographed by the other putting a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
- An Israeli soldier put a cigarette in the mouth of the statue of the Virgin Mary.
- The incident with the Virgin Mary statue happened a few weeks ago in Lebanon.
- The soldier was sentenced to twenty-one days in military prison for desecrating the statue.
This photo went viral on social media last week. According to the IDF, this incident took place in southern Lebanon several weeks ago and was being investigated by commanders there.
Penalties for the incident
“Following the conclusion of the investigation, the soldier who was documented in this act was sentenced to 21 days in military prison and the soldier who captured the incident was sentenced to 14 days in military prison,” the army said.
In a post on the X Network, its spokeswoman wrote that the Israeli armed forces “consider this incident extremely serious and emphasize that the soldier’s behavior completely deviated from the values expected of personnel.” According to her, the IDF “does not intend to damage civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols.”
Repeated cases of vandalism
A similar incident occurred in the village of Dabal in southern Lebanon in April. At that time, a photo of an Israeli soldier smashing a statue of Jesus Christ that had fallen from a wooden cross with a hammer became public. He and his colleague were sentenced to 30 days in prison.
