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The Israeli army has launched an investigation after a photo showed a soldier putting a cigarette into the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary.
The Israeli army has launched an investigation after a photo was circulated online showing a soldier desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon.
The army said on Wednesday that it took “the incident seriously” and promised to take action against the soldier, according to The Times of Israel.
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The dealer said a preliminary investigation found the photo was taken in the predominantly Christian village of Debel a few weeks ago, although it was only shared online on Wednesday.
The photo showed the soldier putting a cigarette into the statue’s mouth while smoking himself.
It is the latest in a series of Israeli soldiers desecrating religious sites and destroying or confiscating property in southern Lebanon.
Last month, a soldier was filmed to destroy the image of Jesus in the same village. According to Lebanese media, Israeli forces also fired at solar panels in Debel that provide the town’s essential water supply, destroying buildings, roads and olive trees.
This comes as the Israeli army is attacking Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, saying it is hitting Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure. Israeli forces continue to occupy large areas of southern Lebanon and demolish entire villages in the region.
The scale of the destruction has left Lebanese officials and Lebanese residents worried that those who have fled the war will have nowhere to return.
In the meantime, concerns have grown The culture of Israel for Christians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Religious groups have reported increasing levels of abuse and violence against Christian pilgrims, religious leaders and Palestinian residents, including beatings and spitting – often by Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students. This includes and beating a French nun near the Old City of Jerusalem last month.
Video footage shows a man following the nun, forcefully pushing her to the ground, causing a head injury, then walking away a short distance away before returning to push her as she lay on the ground, before bystanders intervened.
Israeli officials have been quick to condemn such incidents when they attract international attention, although experts say such incidents usually occur only when threats are made. destroying US and other countries’ goodwill to Israel.
When the images of the attack on the nun appeared, the Israeli police announced the arrest of a 36-year-old man. And after the cry for the destruction of the statue of Jesus in Debel ended, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly issued a reprimand.
The two soldiers involved – one of whom used a hammer to smash the statue while the other painted it – were dismissed from the military and sentenced to 30 days in prison.
In March, Netanyahu’s office also apologized to Israeli police after the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa was prevented from arriving at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to lead a Palm Sunday mass.
Israel’s decision to punish the soldiers involved in the Debel disaster is notable because military investigations often find fault with the actions of its soldiers. No Israeli soldier has been charged with killing a Palestinian in the past decade.
This is despite the killing of more than 72,000 people during Israel’s war of desolation on Gaza, most of them women and children.
Thousands more have been killed outside Gaza, including Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, a Christian, who was shot dead by an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank in 2022.
Israeli forces have destroyed more than 800 mosques in Gaza during the genocidal war, including the Great Omari Mosque, which is the largest and oldest on the strip.
The mosque’s 1,400-year-old room was destroyed, and its building was also badly damaged.
Several churches have also been affected, including the Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest in Gaza and the third in the world.
