The Israeli military is conducting a criminal investigation after a soldier was photographed striking a Catholic statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in southern Lebanon.
Israel’s military officials said they had determined that an image circulating on social media showing the incident was authentic. The image appears to show an Israeli soldier using a sledgehammer to strike the head of a statue of a crucified Jesus that had fallen off a cross.
The Catholic sculpture is located in Debl, a Christian village in south Lebanon near the border with Israel, the local municipality said. Officials could not say whether it had been damaged.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, condemned the defacing of the religious symbol and said that he was “stunned and saddened” when he found out about it. He added that “harsh disciplinary action” would be taken against the individual responsible. The Israeli military said it was working with people in the village to “restore the statue in its place”.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the soldier in the photo had been identified but was not being named publicly.
The defacing of the religious statue provoked outrage in Lebanon and abroad, particularly among evangelicals in the US. Israel’s popularity among American evangelicals, traditionally a bastion of support for the country, has steadily decreased since the start of the war in Gaza.
The Italian government and papal authorities reacted with anger at the defacing of the Jesus statue, with the Italian defence minister, Guido Crosetto, telling the Guardian that it was an “unacceptable and unjustifiable act”, adding to the chorus of condemnation from Rome.
In recent weeks tensions between the Vatican, Italy and the Israeli government have been building after Donald Trump attacked Pope Leo for his criticism of the war in Iran.
On 29 March, Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, voiced firm condemnation after Israeli police prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, describing the episode as an offence to believers and to religious freedom.
Commenting on the recent defacing of the Jesus statue, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia said to the Italian broadcaster La7: “What is the real problem today? The risk is that a lack of culture infects every other dimension of life. Religious fundamentalism, or even civic or political fundamentalism, all share the same root: a total absence of culture. What matters is imposing oneself through force and violence.”
“I would like to point out to Benjamin Netanyahu that Jesus himself went to Tyre and Sidon, in southern Lebanon. But he did not go there to kill; he went to multiply bread, to heal, to perform miracles – not to destroy,” Paglia said.
Israeli soldiers have damaged other mosques and historical religious sites as part of their invasion of south Lebanon, but Israeli officials made no statements about the destruction of these places of worship. Male soldiers have also filmed themselves rummaging through underwear drawers in houses in south Lebanon whose occupants were displaced and wearing the intimate clothing of women while mocking them.
Last week, residents of the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil mourned the loss of the Grand Mosque of Bint Jbeil – a structure that dated back to the Roman empire.
The shrine of the prophet Saint Peter in the city of Chamaa, a mosque that is believed to house the remains of the saint and is a shrine for Shia Muslims and Christians, was partly bulldozed last week, according to the local NGO Green Southerners.
The intentional targeting, damage or destruction of religious sites or places of worship is considered a violation of international humanitarian law under the Geneva Conventions.
The Israeli army has also demolished wide swathes of towns in south Lebanon, releasing videos of remote detonations. Israel’s media has released videos of drone footage that shows towns being razed to the ground, with the Israeli military saying it will continue demolishing houses on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, condemned what he called a “shameful and disgraceful” act. “I am confident that necessary severe measures will be taken against whoever committed this ugly act,” he wrote on X. “We apologise for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt.”
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war in early March when the Tehran-backed armed group Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in support of Iran. Israel responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and an invasion of the south. Israeli troops have remained in the south despite a ceasefire between the two countries that began on Friday.
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