DUBAI: Videos posted online by Israeli soldiers inside bomb-damaged homes and villages in southern Lebanon are drawing growing condemnation, reviving memories of similar footage that surfaced during Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza.
The clips, many apparently filmed and uploaded by the soldiers themselves, show troops rifling through personal belongings, looting homes and businesses, and vandalizing civilian property while laughing amongst themselves.
What once may have remained buried in battlefield testimony is now often uploaded in real time, complete with music, jokes and captions, turning soldiers into inadvertent archivists of the very acts now drawing scrutiny from rights groups and legal experts.
One image that circulated widely this week showed an Israeli soldier placing a cigarette in the mouth of a statue of the Virgin Mary in the Christian town of Debel.
An initial inquiry found the photo had been taken several weeks earlier, but only recently surfaced online.
After the soldier was identified, the Israeli military said disciplinary action would be taken, saying the behavior “completely deviates from the values expected” of its troops.
A photo showing an Israeli soldier putting a cigarette inside the mouth of Virgin Mary statue in Debel, southern Lebanon. (Social media)
Another video from Debel showed the destruction of a statue of Jesus, with a soldier appearing to strike it repeatedly using a sledgehammer.
The footage sparked international outrage, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say he was “stunned and saddened” by the incident, while the military said it viewed the act with “great severity” and would take “appropriate measures” against those involved.
The controversy deepened after Haaretz published testimonies from soldiers and commanders alleging widespread looting by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.
One soldier quoted in the report said theft became more rampant after military checkpoints in the area were removed. “When there is no punishment, the message is clear,” the soldier said.
Similar accounts were reported by Yedioth Ahronoth, which quoted a reservist describing widespread looting by Israeli reserve units operating near the Lebanese border.
“They simply took everything, weapons, souvenirs, jewelry, blankets, pictures,” the reservist said, adding that he witnessed one commander trying to stop troops from bringing stolen goods back into Israel.
The allegations urged a rare public rebuke from Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir, who warned troops against looting and posting such acts on social media.
Zamir said incidents would be investigated, adding that the behavior “tarnishes the IDF.” He ordered commanders to submit detailed reports and instructed that evidence of offences be transferred to military police for possible criminal prosecution.
Ori Goldberg, an Israeli academic, told Arab News that Israeli society is “in a state of complete moral apathy and bankruptcy.”
“Those who are outraged by the genocide (in Gaza), but never protest it, are equally outraged by this as well but will do nothing to stop it. The soldiers are sowing their wild oats, so to speak,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg believes the military command will ultimately limit itself to disciplining lower-ranking soldiers rather than addressing the issue more broadly.
“Israeli society doesn’t really care,” he said.
Human rights organizations and legal experts say the growing volume of footage shared online by Israeli soldiers has fundamentally changed how alleged abuses are documented, with social media increasingly serving as an open archive of potential violations.
Soldiers are no longer only being accused through witness testimony or later investigations, but are increasingly documenting the alleged abuses themselves in real time through TikTok, Instagram and Telegram posts.
Under international humanitarian law, the looting of civilian property during armed conflict is strictly prohibited and can amount to a war crime.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly bans pillage, regardless of military justification, while the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies the pillaging of a town or place, even one seized by assault, as a war crime.
The latest incidents come amid an escalation in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, including strikes on Beirut, with Israel saying it is targeting Hezbollah fighters and infrastructure.
A temporary ceasefire announced on April 17 briefly eased the intensity of the fighting, but violations have mounted in recent weeks as Israeli strikes continued across parts of southern Lebanon.
For 47-year-old Ali, who managed to briefly return home during the 10-day ceasefire in April, the sense of violation runs deeper than the physical destruction left behind.
“Homes, despite the financial burden, can be rebuilt. God is kind and will not leave us,” Ali told Arab News. “But stealing intimate objects from our homes leaves a different kind of hurt.
“Those things often have history, sentimental value, they cannot be replaced. The thought of an Israeli rummaging through our drawers, cooking in our kitchens, then going back with our things is incomprehensible.
“It’s twice the destruction, twice the evil. It’s killing someone and then stomping on their grave.”
