Catholic leaders in the Holy Land expressed their “unreserved condemnation” after a picture of an Israeli soldier striking the head of a statue of Jesus in Debel, a Christian village in southern Lebanon, went viral on social media 19 April.
In a 20 April statement signed by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land expressed its “profound indignation and unreserved condemnation of the desecration of a representation of Jesus Crucified by an Israeli soldier in a Lebanese village.”
In a 19 April statement, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed the photo’s authenticity and condemned the act as “wholly inconsistent” with its values, promising disciplinary action.
The image, shared by journalist Younis Tirawi, appears to show a soldier striking a crucifix statue with a sledgehammer in the village of Debel.
The incident sparked widespread outrage, especially among Christians, amid reports of rising harassment against Christian symbols in the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a 20 April X post: “I condemn the act in the strongest terms.”
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee took to X to say, “Swift, severe, & public consequences are needed” after the incident.
Reuters news agency confirmed that the cross smashed by the soldier was part of a small shrine in a family’s garden on the edge of the village.
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