The IDF posted a photo of a smaller crucifix propped against a tree. The villagers didn’t want it. Italian UNIFIL troops donated a proper replica, the Pope’s ambassador blessed it, and the community installed it in the original spot. American media ran Israel’s version anyway.
Follow-up to: IDF Soldier Filmed Smashing Jesus Statue in Southern Lebanon — Military Confirms Image Is Authentic and Smashed Crosses, Bombed Churches, Killed Priests: The IDF’s War on Christianity
On April 21, two days after a photograph of an IDF soldier taking a sledgehammer to a statue of the crucified Christ in the Maronite village of Debel went viral, the Israeli military posted to X: “A short while ago, in full coordination with the local community of Debel in southern Lebanon, the damaged statue was replaced by IDF troops.”
The photo they attached showed a metallic crucifix — smaller, different in style, propped against a tree. It looked nothing like the original.
The IDF didn’t replace it. Italian peacekeepers did.
What Actually Happened
The real replacement came from Italy’s UNIFIL contingent, operating under Commander Diodato Abagnara. The Italian troops donated a crucifix that closely resembled the original and coordinated directly with residents and local clergy to install it in the exact spot where the destroyed statue had stood.
The Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon, Archbishop Paolo Borgia, traveled to Debel to bless it. An Italian UNIFIL priest, Father Claudio, announced the replacement. Corriere della Sera covered it. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thanked Commander Abagnara and “the entire Italian UNIFIL contingent for deciding to donate a new crucifix to the Lebanese village of Debel.”
The Jerusalem Post — an Israeli outlet — filled in the part the IDF left out: “Residents reportedly were not interested in a statue given as a gift by the military.” Photos from Lebanese media showed the IDF’s crucifix being carried away by community members. The Times of Israel confirmed that the replacement statue was “donated by soldiers of UNIFIL’s Italian contingent.”
The IDF’s claim that it replaced the statue “in full coordination with the local community” was, at best, a half-truth crafted for an American audience. At worst, it was a lie that major U.S. outlets amplified without question.
How American Media Ran With It
The IDF posted its statement on a Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the narrative had already calcified across American conservative media — the very outlets most likely to reach evangelical Christian audiences.
The Daily Wire ran a piece under the headline “After Jesus Statue Is Vandalized, Israel Takes Swift Action,” describing the IDF’s Northern Command as having “spearheaded the restoration” and praising Israel for demonstrating “a Western-style tolerance that remains rare in the Middle East.” The article made no mention of UNIFIL. No mention of Italy. No mention of the villagers rejecting the IDF’s statue.
Townhall ran a similar story headlined “Israel Has Already Repaired Statue of Jesus, Jailed Soldiers, After Viral Incident Draws Outrage.” It quoted an Israeli commentator’s tweet: “Within 72 hours after an IDF soldier desecrated a statue of Jesus: The entire political establishment of Israel condemned it. The soldier was jailed. The statue was replaced by the IDF. Swift and immediate action.” Again, no mention of UNIFIL or the Italian replacement.
CNN, CBC, and Newsweek ran the IDF’s statement as fact. Only after Italian and Lebanese sources corrected the record did Israeli outlets publish follow-ups acknowledging what actually occurred. Most American outlets never updated their coverage.
The result: millions of American Christians absorbed a version of events in which the IDF broke a statue, punished the offenders, replaced the crucifix, and moved on. Case closed.
The people of Debel didn’t want anything from the army that smashed their Lord’s face. They wanted Italy and the UN. And that’s who showed up.
30 Days
The two soldiers involved — the one who swung the sledgehammer and the one who filmed it — were sentenced to 30 days in military detention and removed from combat duty. Six other soldiers who stood by and watched received no punishment beyond being “summoned for clarification discussions.”
Thirty days. For an act that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem called “a grave affront to the Christian faith,” that drew condemnation from the Pope, the Italian government, France, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, and over 150 Jewish religious leaders who signed an open letter calling it “a desecration of God’s name.”
A conscientious objector who refuses military service can be jailed for months. A soldier who takes a sledgehammer to Jesus gets 30 days.
Netanyahu, in his statement, managed to turn the incident into a talking point about Israeli tolerance: “While Christians are being slaughtered in Syria and Lebanon by Muslims, the Christian population in Israel thrives, unlike elsewhere in the Middle East.”
That claim does not survive even the most basic scrutiny.
The Record Israel Doesn’t Want Christians to See
The Religious Freedom Data Center documented 181 incidents of harassment targeting Christians and Christian institutions in Israel in 2025, with an additional 44 between January and March 2026. The Rossing Center recorded 155 incidents in 2025 — 39 percent of them physical assaults. Priests and nuns in visible Christian clothing face spitting, hitting, and pepper-spraying in Jerusalem, particularly around Easter.
Three weeks before Debel, Israeli police barred Cardinal Pizzaballa from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass — the first time in centuries. Italy summoned Israel’s ambassador.
And the destruction goes far beyond harassment.
On March 9, an Israeli Merkava tank fired on a house in the Maronite village of Qlayaa. The first shell wounded the homeowners. When Father Pierre al-Rahi and neighbors rushed to help, the tank fired again — a double-tap strike. The priest died at Marjayoun Hospital. Hours earlier, he had told his community: “I am ready to die in my house, because this is my house.”
Pope Leo XIV mourned him personally. Netanyahu said nothing.
In November 2024, IDF soldiers from the Golani Brigade broke into the 15th-century Monastery of St. Mamas in Deir Mimas, staged a mock wedding in the sanctuary, mocked saints’ icons, simulated intimate acts on the church floor, and posted the footage themselves. The IDF called it “not in line with the values of the IDF.”
That same month, Israeli forces detonated explosives inside the Maqam Shamoun Al-Safa in Chamaa — a shrine with 1st-century archaeological stones, a Fatimid-era minaret from 1097, and a place on UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List. It had survived the Crusades, the 2006 war, and a full Italian-government-funded restoration. The IDF leveled it along with the adjacent medieval castle. Videos showed the tomb appeared looted.
Israeli tanks demolished a statue of Saint George in the village of Yaroun. Churches in Dardghaya were destroyed. The Shrine of the Prophet Benjamin in Muhaibib was leveled alongside an adjacent mosque. At least nine religious sites were demolished in Israeli-controlled explosions across southern Lebanon’s border villages.
In Gaza, the destruction has been even more thorough. The Church of Saint Porphyrius — one of the oldest churches in the world — was bombed in October 2023, killing civilians sheltering inside. The Holy Family Church, Gaza’s only Catholic parish, has been hit repeatedly. Over 1,000 mosques and three churches were destroyed during the war, according to local officials.
This is the record that Netanyahu describes as “tolerance.”
Who Actually Protects Christian Sites in Southern Lebanon?
The Maqam Shamoun Al-Safa wasn’t only a Christian heritage site. It was a Shia Muslim shrine, revered for nearly a millennium. In Shia tradition, Shamoun al-Safa (Simon the Pure) is considered an ancestor of the Imam Mahdi. The site was sacred to both faiths. Its destruction was an assault on a shared heritage that predates every modern political actor in the region by centuries.
This matters because in southern Lebanon, many of the religious sites the IDF has destroyed were places where Christian and Muslim communities had coexisted for generations. The borders between faiths in the Levant have never been as clean as Western media pretends. Villages like Debel and Qlayaa are majority-Christian communities that have lived alongside Shia neighbors for centuries.
In the Catholic town of Ras Baalbek, residents have spoken openly about this. Rifaat Nasrallah, a 60-year-old quarryman, told the Telegraph: “How can we as Christians in this area not be with Hezbollah? They protect our churches. They helped us fight ISIS. During COVID they gave us free care in their hospitals.”
He went further: “The relationship between the village and Hezbollah is stronger than with the Pope. The Vatican did nothing for us when ISIS attacked, but Hezbollah spilt their blood to protect us.”
That alliance defies every narrative framework American media uses to discuss the Middle East. The IDF frames every Christian village as a “human shield” scenario and every shared shrine as Hezbollah “exploiting” Christians. But the Christians living there tell a different story, and the physical evidence backs them up.
The statue in Debel was intact under Hezbollah’s presence. Destroyed under Israeli occupation. The Maqam Shamoun Al-Safa survived Hezbollah’s control for decades. Destroyed within weeks of the IDF’s arrival. The Monastery of St. Mamas stood for five centuries. Desecrated within days of Israeli soldiers entering.
A PR Problem, Not a Values Problem
Netanyahu didn’t condemn the killing of Father al-Rahi. Didn’t condemn the destruction of the Saint Peter shrine. Didn’t condemn the mock wedding at St. Mamas. Didn’t condemn the Palm Sunday blockade until international backlash forced a walkback.
But a sledgehammer to a statue of Jesus? Same-day statement, criminal investigation, staged replacement photo on X — all within 72 hours. Because that’s the kind of image that reaches the one constituency Israel can’t lose: American evangelical Christians, whose support undergirds military aid and Republican political cover.
That’s not a moral response. It’s a communications strategy.
The IDF investigated itself for the statue. Not for the priest. Not for the shrine. Not for the churches. Not for any of the 181 documented anti-Christian incidents within Israel’s own borders in 2025.
And when the actual replacement came — from Italian peacekeepers, the Pope’s ambassador, and the village’s own people — the IDF claimed credit for that, too.
The villagers knew better. They removed the IDF’s prop and put the real crucifix in its rightful place.
This is a developing story. The Pocono Review will continue covering the IDF’s treatment of Christian communities and religious sites in Lebanon and the broader Middle East. Tips? Reach out to our newsroom.