Israel’s foreign minister and military have condemned the desecration of a crucifix by an Israeli soldier in a southern Lebanese village, an incident captured in a widely circulated photograph.
The image, which emerged online over the weekend, shows a soldier wielding the blunt side of an axe against a fallen sculpture of Jesus on the cross.
The photograph was posted by Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian reporter and has previously shared images alleging misconduct by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
Reuters has verified the location of the incident as Debel, one of the few villages in southern Lebanon where residents have remained amidst an Israeli military campaign against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia. This campaign began on 2 March, following Hezbollah’s rocket attacks on Israel in support of Iran.
Fadi Falfel, a priest in Debel, confirmed that the cross was part of a small shrine situated in the garden of a family residing on the edge of the village.
He stated: “One of the Israeli soldiers broke the cross and did this horrible thing, this desecration of our holy symbols.”
A map of Debel:
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the soldier’s actions were disgraceful and shameful. “We apologize for this incident and to every Christian whose feelings were hurt,” Saar said on X.
The Israeli military said the incident was being investigated.
“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) views the incident with great severity and emphasises that the soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops,” the military said. “The IDF is working to assist the community in restoring the statue to its place.”
Debel is one of dozens of villages in south Lebanon now under effective Israeli occupation. Israel and Lebanon on Thursday agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire intended to halt fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
“We have every kind of crisis,” Falfel said.
“We thought the ceasefire would bring us some relief but we’re still surrounded, unable to travel to and from the town. There are some houses on the edge of town that we’re barred from accessing.”
Israeli military officials say they are working with aid agencies to meet the humanitarian needs of Debel and other villages.
On Monday, it told residents of south Lebanon to stay out of a belt of territory running the length of the border and not to approach the area of the Litani River, entrenching its grip over southern Lebanon despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.
The U.S.-mediated, 10-day ceasefire took effect on Thursday, largely halting the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah that spiralled out of the conflict between the United States and Iran.
But it remains fragile, with Israeli troops occupying territory deep in the south, aiming to create a buffer zone to shield northern Israel from Hezbollah attack, while the group says it maintains the “right to resist” Israeli occupation.
The Israeli military posted a map on social media with a red line through 21 villages across the south, and said residents should not move into the area between it and the border, saying Israeli troops were maintaining positions in the south “in the face of ongoing terrorist activities” by the Iran-backed group.
The map named more than 50 other villages in the south to which residents should not return. The Israeli military also said it was not permitted to approach the area of the Litani River, which mostly flows to the north of the area the Israeli military said residents should stay out of.
On Sunday, the Israeli military published a similar map, showing for the first time its new deployment line inside Lebanon. Stretching east to west, the deployment line on the map runs 5-10 km deep from the border into Lebanese territory, covering an area where the Israeli military has been destroying villages.
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