Two Israeli soldiers have been sentenced to weeks behind bars in a military prison after desecrating a statue of the Virgin Mary in southern Lebanon. One soldier placed a cigarette in the mouth of the statue, while the other captured the moment on camera.
The image, which showed the soldier with a cigarette hanging from his own mouth, went viral and provoked widespread outrage across the globe. Israel’s military confirmed that the soldier posing in the photograph would receive 21 days in military prison, while the soldier who took the image would serve 14 days.
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 Ariella Mazor wrote on X.
This comes just days after images of an Israeli soldier holding an axe to a toppled statue of Jesus on the cross in the southern Lebanese village of Debel drew widespread criticism from Christian leaders.
The military has since handed down prison sentences to the soldiers involved.
On April 8, shortly after the announcement of a ceasefire in the Iran war and Hezbollah signalling a pause in attacks against Israel, Israel launched what it described as its “most powerful attacks” on Lebanon, killing at least 357 people.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun described the event as a “massacre”, and the government announced a day of mourning and a public holiday.
