Two Israeli soldiers will spend weeks in a military prison for desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon.
One soldier was photographed putting a cigarette in the mouth of the statue.
“The soldier who put the cigarette in the statue’s mouth was jailed for 21 days, and the one who took the photograph for 14,” The Guardian stated.
This follows a separate incident where an Israeli soldier smashed the head of a statue of Jesus Christ.
The Guardian shared further:
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.
ADVERTISEMENTThe 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.
View the photographs below:
Two Israeli soldiers will spend several weeks in military prison after desecrating a Christian statue in southern Lebanon: one placed a cigarette in the mouth of a Virgin Mary statue, while the other photographed it.
This is a separate incident following one in which an Israeli… pic.twitter.com/Rt613Bz5aV
— AF Post (@AFpost) May 12, 2026
More from the Associated Press:
Israeli forces took control of southern Lebanon as part of the latest Israel-Hezbollah war, which began on March 2 when the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group fired missiles over the border two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war with Iran. Israeli forces have remained despite a weekslong truce.
Also Monday, Israel’s military said a soldier who worked as a driver had been killed in combat near the border, marking the 18th to die in the area since the start of the Iran war.
Israel’s military says it only targets buildings that were used as outposts by the Iran-backed militant group. The scale of destruction has Lebanese officials and residents worried that large numbers of people displaced by the latest war will have nowhere to return if the fragile truce holds.
