Incident in Maronite Christian village draws condemnation from across the political spectrum — and fits a documented pattern of religious site destruction by Israeli forces
An Israeli soldier was filmed using a sledgehammer to smash a statue of Jesus Christ in the Maronite Christian village of Debel in southern Lebanon, in footage that spread rapidly across social media on Sunday and drew immediate international condemnation. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the image was authentic later that evening and announced an investigation by its Northern Command.
The image was first posted by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi on X, showing a uniformed IDF soldier mid-swing, striking the head of a statue of the crucified Christ. Local residents in the nearby village of Ain Ebel attributed the incident to Debel, a small Christian community in the Nabatieh district, roughly five kilometers from the Israeli border community of Shtula.
A local social media account identified as “Debel Alerts” posted a photograph of the same statue intact at the same location. The landscape matched the attack image exactly — the cross, the stone wall, the vegetation — confirming the location and underscoring that the destruction was deliberate. The page captioned its post with Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
IDF Confirms, Promises Investigation
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani initially posted on X that the military would examine the image’s authenticity. By Sunday evening, the IDF confirmed it was real, stating that the soldier’s conduct was “wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops” and that the Northern Command would investigate. The military also said it would help the community restore the statue.
Wadie Abunassar, coordinator of the Christian Forum in the Holy Land, said he had received the image from multiple sources and urged the matter not be ignored.
Backlash Crosses Political Lines
The reaction was swift and remarkably bipartisan. Former Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — once among the strongest pro-Israel voices on the American right — posted the image mockingly on X, writing, “‘Our greatest ally’ that takes billions of our tax dollars.” Former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz called the image “horrific.”
The backlash from figures within the MAGA movement is significant. Greene has broken with former President Donald Trump over the Epstein files and his decision to follow Israel into a war with Iran. The incident is likely to further damage Israel’s image among what has historically been one of its strongest American support bases — evangelical Christians.
One widely shared comment captured the broader sentiment: “Let me get this straight, the statue was unharmed under Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and as soon as it was under Israeli control they destroyed it?”
A Pattern, Not an Anomaly
The statue’s destruction did not occur in a vacuum. Even the Times of Israel acknowledged the context, noting that the image “is the latest instance in which footage has been published of Israeli soldiers destroying or looting property.”
The pattern of religious site destruction in Lebanon is well documented. In November 2024, Israeli forces detonated explosives inside the Maqam Shamoun Al-Safa in the village of Chamaa — an ancient shrine believed to hold the burial place of Saint Peter. The site dated to at least the 1st century CE, was revered by both Christians and Shia Muslims, had survived the Crusades and the 2006 Lebanon war, and held a place on UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List. It was destroyed with deliberately placed charges.
At least nine religious sites were demolished in Israeli-controlled explosions across southern Lebanon’s border villages, including the Shrine of the Prophet Benjamin in Muhaibib, churches in Dardghaya and Yaroun, and the mosque of Blieda. Another Christian site was reportedly destroyed in Ain Ebel — the same village whose residents identified the Debel statue’s location.
Amnesty International’s August 2025 briefing, “Nowhere To Return,” documented the broader scale: more than 10,000 structures heavily damaged or destroyed across 24 municipalities between October 2024 and January 2025, including at least 16 religious sites, a 2,100-year-old shrine, and two cemeteries. The organization’s Crisis Evidence Lab verified 77 videos showing soldiers manually laying explosives inside homes, bulldozing religious sites, and — in multiple cases — filming themselves celebrating by singing and cheering. In one village, satellite imagery showed a Star of David carved into the ground next to a destroyed soccer field. Much of the destruction occurred after the November 2024 ceasefire, meaning it was carried out while Israeli forces had full control of the areas, outside of active combat.
Weeks After the Palm Sunday Blockade
The Debel incident comes just three weeks after Israeli police blocked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass — an unprecedented act that the Latin Patriarchate said marked “the first time in centuries” church leaders were prevented from celebrating the holiday at Christianity’s holiest site.
The backlash was extraordinary. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called it an offense to “any community that respects religious freedom.” Italy summoned Israel’s ambassador. French President Macron said it “joins a worrying series of violations of the status of the holy sites in Jerusalem.” Even Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee — one of the most pro-Israel figures in the administration — said the decision was “difficult to understand or justify.”
Israeli authorities have shut down holy sites across East Jerusalem’s Old City during the war with Iran, leaving the Christian Quarter deserted and cancelling the Way of the Cross procession and Holy Fire Saturday — ceremonies irreplaceable for a community whose population has dwindled to less than 2 percent of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.
Soldiers Keep Filming Themselves
The Debel footage fits a broader phenomenon that has become impossible to ignore: Israeli soldiers recording and publishing their own conduct during military operations.
The Al Jazeera Investigative Unit has built a database of more than 2,500 IDF soldier social media accounts documenting apparent war crimes. The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed ICC complaints naming over 1,000 individual soldiers based on their own posts. A year-long Washington Post investigation corroborated the pattern. The IDF’s own former top military lawyer warned commanders in 2024 against looting and destruction of civilian property — a warning that has clearly gone unheeded.
The IDF has repeatedly said such behavior does not reflect its values. But the pattern — spanning Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon — raises the question the military’s standard response never answers: if this conduct is truly contrary to IDF values, why does it keep happening?
The Scene on the Ground
The statue smashing occurred just days into a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which took effect Friday after months of heavy fighting following the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran that began in February 2026. Five IDF divisions and naval forces remain deployed across southern Lebanon.
But for the residents of Debel and the wider Christian community — already devastated by months of destruction — the image of a uniformed soldier taking a sledgehammer to the face of Christ says something that no military press release can walk back.
The Pocono Review will continue to follow this story as the IDF investigation develops. Tips? Reach out to our newsroom.