{"id":82169,"date":"2026-04-20T18:46:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/israel-investigating-soldier-who-destroyed-crucifix-statue-in-lebanon-amid-catholic-outrage\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T18:53:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T18:53:29","slug":"israel-investigating-soldier-who-destroyed-crucifix-statue-in-lebanon-amid-catholic-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/04\/20\/israel-investigating-soldier-who-destroyed-crucifix-statue-in-lebanon-amid-catholic-outrage\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel investigating soldier who destroyed crucifix statue in Lebanon amid Catholic outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

An Israeli soldier destroyed a statue of Christ’s crucifixion in a Catholic village in southern Lebanon, prompting Israel to launch a criminal investigation and draw condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Catholic leaders.<\/p>\n

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on 19 April Authenticity confirmed<\/a> A picture on social media shows one of its soldiers attacking a statue of Jesus Christ with a hammer in the village of Debelle. which is even more<\/a> 95% Catholic and over 99% Christian.<\/p>\n

The photo shows that the statue had already been damaged before the photo was taken, with the body of Christ hanging upside down from the cross, with only his feet attached to the wood. The photos do not show the initial damage before the soldier used the sledgehammer.<\/p>\n

IDF announces investigation after confirming authenticity of photo on its official<\/a>. The IDF promised that “appropriate measures will be taken against those involved according to the findings” and that the IDF is helping the community restore the statue.<\/p>\n

“The IDF is working to destroy terrorist infrastructure established by Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and has no intention of harming civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu said in a post on Twitter that he was “shocked and saddened” by the act and “I strongly condemn this act.” He promised a criminal investigation and said military authorities would “take appropriate harsh disciplinary action against the perpetrator.”<\/p>\n

Netanyahu said, “We express our regret for this incident and for any injury caused to believers in Lebanon and around the world.”<\/p>\n

Catholic leaders condemned this act<\/h2>\n

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, condemned the destruction of the statue as a “grave insult to the Christian faith” in a statement issued through the Congregation of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, of which he is president.<\/p>\n

He said the gathering “expresses its deep outrage and open condemnation at the desecration of a statue of crucified Jesus by an Israeli soldier in a village in Lebanon” and warned that the action “adds to other alleged incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon.”<\/p>\n

Pizzaballa said, “It exposes a disturbing failure in moral and human formation, in which even the most basic reverence for the sanctity and dignity of others has been seriously compromised.”<\/p>\n

The House called for “immediate and decisive disciplinary action, a credible process of accountability, and clear assurances that such conduct will neither be tolerated nor repeated.”<\/p>\n

Pizzaballa said that even after the destruction of the statue, “the cross remains invincible in its meaning.”<\/p>\n

“As St. Paul the Apostle declares, ‘Far be it from me, glory is far from me except through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Gal 6:14<\/a>),” the statement said. “For believers, the cross endures as a source of dignity, hope and salvation and as a call to overcome violence through sacrificial love.”<\/p>\n

Pizzaballa said, “It is precisely in this light that the Church continues to proclaim that true peace cannot arise from violence” and Pope Leo XIV was quoted,<\/a> who quoted the words of Jesus Christ Matthew 26:52<\/a>That true peace must remain \u201cunarmed\u201d\u2026 a peace that calls for \u2018putting the sword back in its sheath.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Pizzaballa concluded, “For this reason, the Assembly renews its call, as a matter of urgency, to end the war that has tormented the region for too long, and to embrace a path where peace is seen in restraint, dialogue, responsibility and reverence for the sacred and every human life.”<\/p>\n

Catholic village in the south<\/h2>\n

Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a 10-day ceasefire on 16 April, but the IDF remains deployed on most of the land south of the Litani River, including the Catholic villages of Debel, Ramish and Ain Abel.<\/p>\n

The majority of people in southern Lebanon are Shia Muslims, but the region also includes Sunni villages and Christian villages and religiously mixed villages.<\/p>\n

More than 1 million people fled their homes, but about 150,000 \u2013 including Catholics \u2013 remained in southern Lebanon despite Israeli evacuation orders, fearing that if they left they would not be allowed to return. Some people have returned to their homes during the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Catholic organizations provided shelter and assistance to displaced persons and those who remained in the South throughout the war. Less than two weeks ago, a humanitarian convoy to the Vatican was caught in the crossfire between Israeli and Hezbollah forces.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the war, a Catholic priest named Father Pierre al-Rahi was killed in Israeli attacks. The Lebanese Health Ministry has confirmed at least 2,294 deaths during the conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Israeli soldier destroyed a statue of Christ’s crucifixion in a Catholic village in southern Lebanon, prompting Israel to launch a criminal investigation and draw condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Catholic leaders. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on 19 April Authenticity confirmed A picture on social media shows one of its soldiers attacking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":82227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[457,21717,5217,4665,528,608,603,6386,8131],"class_list":["post-82169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-news","tag-catholic","tag-crucifix","tag-destroyed","tag-investigating","tag-israel","tag-lebanon","tag-outrage","tag-soldier","tag-statue"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82169"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82230,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82169\/revisions\/82230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}