WASHINGTON (TNND) — Tennessee GOP Rep. Tim Burchett on Tuesday called for Israel to denounce an IDF soldier who vandalized a statue of Jesus Christ in Lebanon.
Over the weekend, a photo came out that showed a soldier taking an ax to a fallen sculpture of Jesus in Lebanon.
It was first posted by Palestinian reporter Younis Tirawi, according to Reuters.
“Israel @netanyahu needs to denounce this,” Burchett wrote on the social media platform, X.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that military authorities were conducting a criminal probe into the situation.
“Yesterday, like the overwhelming majority of Israelis, I was stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon,” he wrote on X. “I condemn the act in the strongest terms. Military authorities are conducting a criminal probe of the matter and will take appropriately harsh disciplinary action against the offender.”
The Israel Defense Forces announced on Tuesday that they replaced the damaged statue.
“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 IDF wrote in a statement on X. “The Northern Command worked to coordinate the replacement of the statue from the moment it received the report of the incident. The IDF expresses deep regret over the incident, and is working to ensure that it does not happen again in the future.”