JAKARTA - Residents of Debel City in Lebanon now have a new Jesus statue, after the previous statue in the city was vandalized by the Israeli army.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said Italian peacekeepers serving in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had replaced a statue of Jesus Christ vandalized by Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
The crucified Jesus statue is located in the Christian village of Debl in southern Lebanon, near the border with Israel.
In a statement, PM Meloni thanked the Italian contingent of the UNIFIL peacekeepers "for deciding to donate a new cross to the village of Debl in Lebanon," as reported by Al Arabiya from AFP (23/4).
He said the new statue was a "powerful message of hope, dialogue and peace."
Meanwhile, the Italian Ministry of Defense shared the process of handing over the statue of the crucified Jesus on social media X, from the blessing in the local church to the installation carried out together by religious leaders, Italian UNIFIL troops and local people.
The ministry wrote, the new statue of Jesus crucified to replace the statue that was destroyed a few days earlier was a gift as well as a symbol of presence, respect and humanity.
A photo showing an Israeli soldier using the blunt side of an axe to destroy a statue of Jesus falling on a cross drew widespread condemnation on Monday from Israeli politicians, the United States and church leaders.
The photo was uploaded by Younis Tirawi, a Palestinian reporter who has also uploaded pictures of alleged violations committed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
"There are gestures that speak more than many words, and the one made in #Lebanon by our military of #UNIFIL is a concrete and valuable testimony. The new statue of Christ crucified - to replace the one destroyed in recent days in the south of the country - is a gift and to... pic.twitter.com/776tXnwVkH
— Ministero Difesa (@MinisteroDifesa) April 23, 2026
The Israeli military said it had withdrawn the soldier involved in the destruction from the battlefield and would face a 30-day detention.
Meanwhile, the other six soldiers who "were present at the scene and did not act to stop the incident or report it" have been summoned for "clarification discussions."
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, condemned the desecration of the statue as an unacceptable act and a moral failure, according to the statement.
Previously, residents of the southern Lebanese city of Debel rejected a statue of Jesus Christ offered by the Israeli army in exchange for a statue destroyed by an Israeli soldier a few days earlier, local media reported Thursday.
Israeli news site Walla said residents "did not accept a statue of Jesus Christ offered to them by the Israeli army, after a soldier destroyed a statue standing in the city."
"Residents are not interested in statues of those who have hurt their feelings, in actions that angered millions of Christians around the world," the report said, as quoted by Anadolu.
Israel launched an attack on southern Lebanon on March 2, following an attack by the militant group Hezbollah in response to an Israeli attack on Iran that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The 10-day Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire was announced on April 16. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump announced an extension of the ceasefire for three weeks, following two rounds of negotiations between the two countries, which was the first in the last 40 years.
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