Israeli troops jailed for desecration of Virgin Mary statue in Lebanon

Two Israeli soldiers will spend weeks in military prison for the desecration of a Christian object after one stuck a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon and the other photographed it.

The photo of the soldier, a cigarette dangling from his own mouth, went viral and sparked widespread outrage. It was the latest act by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon to be denounced as anti-Christian.

Israel’s military said the soldier posing would be jailed for 21 days and the one who photographed him 14.

The military “views the incident with great severity and respects freedom of religion and worship, as well as holy sites and religious symbols of all religions and communities,” spokesperson Lt Col Ariella Mazor wrote on X.

The photo appeared days after images of an Israeli soldier wielding an axe against a fallen statue of Jesus on the cross in the southern Lebanon village of Debel were roundly condemned by foreign leaders, Christian leaders and Israeli politicians.

The military sentenced soldiers who participated in hacking down the crucifix to time in military prison.

The punishments given in the two cases are unusual.

The conflict-monitoring group Action on Armed Violence found that Israel had closed down or left unresolved 88% of cases of alleged misconduct in Gaza and the West Bank. In a recent case, charges were dropped against soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Gaza detainee.

Israeli forces took control of southern Lebanon as part of the latest conflict with Hezbollah, which began on 2 March when the Tehran-backed Lebanese militant group fired missiles over the border two days after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran.

Israel then launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, and its forces have remained despite a truce.

Israel’s military says it only targets buildings that Hezbollah uses as outposts. The scale of destruction, however, has Lebanese officials and residents worried that large numbers of displaced people will have nowhere to return if the fragile truce holds.

Christians make up about a third of Lebanon’s population of roughly 5.5 million people.

Associated Press contributed to this report

The Guardian wp:paragraph