In yet another clash with Hezbollah, the Israel army attacked a religious Catholic building in Southern Lebanon.

In the incident, the Israeli army confirmed it damaged a “religious building” in southern Lebanon, while a French Catholic association condemned the action as “deliberate” that targeted a monastery.

Specifically, the Israeli army said its forces operating in the village of Yarun damaged a building at a religious site while destroying what the Israeli army described as “terrorist infrastructure” in the area.

“During operations conducted (…) to destroy a terrorist infrastructure, one of the houses located in a religious site was hit and damaged,” the army’s Arabic-speaking spokesman Avihai Andrai said in a post on X.

“There was no visible sign indicating that it was a religious building. Once clear distinctive features were identified on another building at the site, (Israeli) forces acted to prevent further damage to the site,” he added.

Official Lebanese news agency “ANI” reported yesterday, Friday, that “the Israeli army caused damage in Yarun, including a monastery, a private school, residences and shops“. For his part, Avihai Adrai justified the presence of the Israeli army in the area by saying that “Hezbollah was firing rockets at Israel from the site”.

Reactions from French Catholics

Denouncing the event, the French Catholic organization “The Work of the East” said in a statement that “the army ‘seized’ a monastery in Yarun belonging to the Salvatorian Sisters, a Greek Catholic religious order supported by the organization The Work of the East“. The religious organization denounced the action as “a deliberate act of destroying a place of worship and systematic destruction of homes in southern Lebanon in order to prevent the return of the civilian population.”

Initially, Israel’s Foreign Ministry denied that the building, described as a monastery, had been destroyed,” accompanying its statement with a photo of a two-story building.

However, the incident comes days after the Israeli army announced a one-month jail sentence for two of its soldiers who vandalized a statue of Jesus Christ in another village in southern Lebanon.

However, Israel continues to advance in southern Lebanon operating against Hezbollah, despite a ceasefire that went into effect on April 17, aimed at ending more than six weeks of fighting.