Israeli military replaces crucifix smashed by soldier amid concerns over repeated desecrations

The Israeli military said it has replaced the damaged crucifix in a southern Lebanese village, days after a uniformed Israeli soldier was photographed taking a sledgehammer to the head of a statue of the crucified Jesus Christ.

As Zeale News reported, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, issued a statement calling for immediate and decisive disciplinary action against the soldier, saying that the desecration was not only a grave affront to the Christian faith but an indication of a "disturbing failure in moral and human formation.” An internal military investigation found that several soldiers were involved in the incident.

>> Israeli soldier desecrates crucifix in southern Lebanese village << 

Replacement and local context

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the new statue was installed in the village of Debel following the April 19 episode, adding that its Northern Command “worked to coordinate the replacement of the statue from the moment it received the report of the incident.”

The IDF stated that troops installed the new crucifix “in full coordination with the local community.” Debel is one of dozens of southern Lebanese villages under Israeli military control in a so-called buffer zone, where civilian movement remains restricted and residents live under the oversight of IDF forces.

Discipline and response

The IDF has said it views the original incident with “great severity” and announced April 21 that the two main soldiers involved — one who damaged the statue and another who documented the act — were removed from combat duty and sentenced to 30 days of military detention.

The military said additional soldiers were present and failed to intervene or report the incident promptly.

Other reported incidents

Church leaders and local clergy have pointed to what they describe as a broader pattern of abuses against Christian religious sites in southern Lebanon.

In a statement signed by Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land said the Debel episode adds to “other reported incidents of desecration of Christian symbols by IDF soldiers in southern Lebanon,” without citing specific cases.

A local priest in Debel, Father Fadi Flaifel, has made similar claims in interviews, saying such acts “had happened before” in the area. 

In November 2024, the IDF had to issue a statement after Israeli soldiers broke into St. Mema Orthodox Church in Lebanon and filmed themselves staging a pretend wedding between two soldiers, mocking hymns to the Virgin Mary, ridiculing sacred images, and mimicking sexual acts on the church’s floor before piling on and wrestling each other. 

The IDF said the incident was “not in line with the IDF’s values and orders.” 

In a more recent video that drew backlash, an IDF bulldozer plowed into and toppled a large white statue of Saint George on horseback in the Christian village of Yaroun — footage the IDF apparently filmed themselves in 2025. A local priest confirmed the destruction to L'Orient Today after it went viral around Palm Sunday.

As Zeale News reported April 20, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on the soldier’s desecration of the crucifix. “I condemn the act in the strongest terms,” he wrote, arguing that the “the soldier's conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops.”