Two Israeli soldiers have been jailed after a crucifix was smashed in the southern Lebanese Christian village of Debel.
One soldier had taken a sledgehammer to the statue of Jesus, while the other took pictures. Both have been removed from combat duty and sentenced to military detention for 30 days, after images emerged over the weekend.
Six other soldiers were “present and did not act to stop the incident or report it”, according to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). They have been “summoned for clarification discussions”, according to a statement posted on X.
The incident has been condemned by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, “in the strongest terms”. Catholic leaders in the Holy Land have expressed their “profound indignation”.
“The IDF expresses deep regret over the incident and emphasizes that its operations in Lebanon are directed solely against the Hezbollah terrorist organization and other terrorist groups, and not against Lebanese civilians”, the military statement read.
The statue, which was in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village, has now been replaced by the IDF.
Aid to the Church in Need has expressed “deep sorrow” and its condemnation of the desecration. Speaking to Premier Christian News before the sanction was announced, John Newton from the Catholic charity shared his doubts over whether there would be long-lasting change to stop incidents being repeated.
“I’m sure that there is every good intention from all the organs within Israel to investigate this. But I do look at the track record with the IDF and just wonder whether or not we are going to see a real answer to this.
“For any religious group, it's going to be a great shock, but especially for a vulnerable community like those in southern Lebanon. They’ve been caught up in the middle of a war that wasn’t of their making,” he added.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of the Holy Land, said the smashing of the crucifix “constitutes a grave affront to the Christian faith and adds to other reported incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.
On behalf of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinands of the Holy Land, he said the cross was a “source of dignity, hope and redemption, and as a summons to overcome violence through sacrificial love.
“It is precisely in this light that the Church continues to proclaim that true peace cannot be born of violence, but must remain, in the words of Pope Leo XIV, “unarmed… a peace that calls to ‘put [the] sword back into its sheath’”, Cardinal Pizzaballa added.