THE Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday condemned “in the strongest terms” an Israeli soldier appearing to use a sledgehammer against a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon.
Analysts said that an image of the attack, which spread on social media, was taken in Debel, a Christian village in Lebanon, where Israeli military have been fighting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, in response to the group firing rockets at Israel in support of Iran.
The IDF initially said it was “examining the reliability” of the image, which appeared to show a soldier hammering the head of Jesus on a cross. It later confirmed it was treating the image as genuine.
The Israeli army said in a post on its official X account on Monday that it regarded the incident with “great severity”, and that the “soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops”. It added that the incident was being investigated.
Later on Monday, Mr Netanyahu said on X: “As the Jewish state, Israel cherishes and upholds the Jewish values of tolerance and mutual respect between Jews and worshippers of all faiths. All religions flourish in our land and we view members of all faiths as equals in building our society and region.
“Yesterday, like the overwhelming majority of Israelis, I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon.
“I condemn the act in the strongest terms. Military authorities are conducting a criminal probe of the matter and will take appropriately harsh disciplinary action against the offender.
“While Christians are being slaughtered in Syria and Lebanon by Muslims, the Christian population in Israel thrives unlike elsewhere in the Middle East. Israel is the only country in the region that the Christian population and standard of living is growing.
“Israel is the only place in the Middle East that adheres to freedom of worship for all. We express regret for the incident and for any hurt this has caused to believers in Lebanon and around the world.”
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said that the soldier’s actions were disgraceful and shameful. “We apologise for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt,” he wrote on social media.
The cross was part of a small shrine in the garden of a family living on the edge of the village, a priest in Debel, Fr Fadi Felfle, told Reuters. “One of the Israeli soldiers broke the cross and did this horrible thing, this desecration of our holy symbols,” he said.
The image circulated after a US-brokered ceasefire aimed at pausing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah was agreed on Thursday of last week. That came after about 2000 people were killed in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and more than one million displaced since the US-Israel led war against Iran, which began at the end of February.