Israel Defense Forces punished soldiers for desecrating Christian shrines in Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sentenced two soldiers to military imprisonment for an act of profanity against a statue of the Virgin Mary in the village of Debel in southern Lebanon. The command emphasized that it takes such incidents seriously and regularly reminds its personnel of the rules of conduct on the territory of religious sites.

According to the CREDO information resource, one of the soldiers who put a cigarette in the lips of the Virgin Mary statue will spend 21 days in detention. His fellow soldier, who photographed the act of desecration, was sentenced to 14 days in custody. The incident took place against the background of Israel’s creation of a «buffer zone» in the southern territories of Lebanon, in the course of which Christian buildings and monasteries are subjected to destruction.

This is not the first case of desecration of Christian symbols in the region. In April of this year, an Israeli soldier was sentenced to 30 days for smashing the head of Jesus with a sledgehammer on a fallen crucifix in the same village of Debel. Experts note that the current situation in the settlements of Debel, Ain Ebel and Rmeish is reminiscent of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon from 1985 to 2000.