The Israeli army confirmed on Saturday that it had damaged a religious building in the village of Yaroun, in southern Lebanon, during operations to dismantle what it describes as terrorist infrastructure. This acknowledgment comes as two Israeli soldiers were recently convicted of vandalism against a religious symbol in another Lebanese village.
Avichay Adraee, the army’s Arabic-language spokesman, explained: “It was noted that, during the operations carried out (…) to destroy the terrorist infrastructure, one of the houses located on a religious site was damaged.” He specified that there were “no visible signs indicating that it was a religious building,” adding that “as soon as clear distinctive signs were observed on another building on the site, the (Israeli) forces acted to prevent any further damage to the site.”
Contradictory versions
The accounts of the events differ. The official Lebanese news agency ANI reported on Friday the destruction of a monastery, a private school, houses, and shops in Yaroun. The French Catholic organization L’Oeuvre d’Orient stated that it was a convent belonging to the Salvatorian Sisters, “a Greek Catholic religious order supported by L’Oeuvre d’Orient.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, denied the destruction of the building described as a monastery.
Condemnation and context
