April 19 (UPI) — The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Sunday that a photo showing an Israeli solider smashing the head of a statue of Jesus in southern Lebanon is authentic.
The photo, originally posted on X by Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi, quickly went viral across social media, drawing condemnation from Christians, Palestinians and others in the war-torn region.
After initially pledging an investigation into the photo, the IDF later announced they had found it to be real and not an artificial intelligence fabrication.
“Following the completion of an initial examination regarding a photograph published earlier today of an IDF soldier harming a Christian symbol, it was determined that the photograph depicts an IDF soldier operating in southern Lebanon,” the military announced.
“The IDF views the incident with great severity and emphasizes that the soldier’s conduct is wholly inconsistent with the values expected of its troops.
“The incident is being investigated by the Northern Command and is currently being addressed through the chain of command. Appropriate measures will be taken against those involved in accordance with the findings.”
The IDF is currently examining the reliability of the photograph.
If this is indeed a real, recent picture, these actions do not align with the IDF’s values and the behavior expected of IDF soldiers.
The Israeli military added it is “working to assist the community in restoring the statue to its place” and vowed it has “no intention of harming civilian infrastructure, including religious buildings or religious symbols,” in its fight against Hezbollah militia forces in southern Lebanon.
The photo stirred up outrage among Christians, Palestinians and others in the Middle East.
Wadie Abunassar, coordinator of the Holy Land Christian Forum, a group of Christian laity advocating for the Christian presence in the region, called for action on the part of Israeli authorities.
“Israel has to inquire this crime, to apologize for it, to bring suspect to justice, & make sure it won’t be repeated!” he wrote in a social media post.
Meanwhile, Ayman Odeh, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, added sarcastically, “We’ll wait to hear the police spokesperson claim that ‘the soldier felt threatened by Jesus.'”
An Israeli infantry soldier says his morning prayers near a bus loaded with combat gear inside northern Israel along the southern Lebanon border on February 18, 2025. Photo by Jim Hollander/UPI | License Photo
While the militant Lebanese group has used FPV drones against Israel since 2024, it has ramped up these attacks for a couple of different reasons, according to Ryan Brobst, Deputy Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)’s Center on Military and Political Power.
“The IDF is currently operating further north with more troops than in previous operations, which increases the number and proximity of targets for Hezbollah to strike,” Brobst told us. In addition, there are indications that the Iranian proxy has followed additional lessons from the Ukraine war using fiber optic cables to guide the drones. As we have frequently reported, fiber optic cables mitigate the effect of electronic warfare efforts to jam radio signals as well as some of the limitations imposed by geographical features that can impede the line-of-sight radio connection between drone and operator.
A fiber-optic-controlled drone is designed for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, on January 29, 2025. (Photo by Maxym Marusenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto
“One additional consideration may be the rising availability of fiber optic drones,” Brobst explained. “Just to be clear, I am not certain the extent to which Hezbollah has switched to fiber optics vs radio, or that radio models are totally ineffective. But it seems quite unlikely Hezbollah had significant numbers of fiber optics in 2024, given that Russia and Ukraine were just starting to deploy them that year. They are much more available now.”
Several videos recorded by Hezbollah recently have emerged on social media claiming to show its use of fiber optic-controlled FPV drones.
One video claims to show a compilation of Hezbollah FPV strikes that hit two Merkava Mk.4 main battle tanks, a D9 Caterpillar armored bulldozer, and what appears to be a Namer heavy infantry fighting vehicle (IFV).
The extent of the damage is not fully clear from these videos. The feeds end as soon as the drone strikes the target. Unlike both Ukraine and Russia, it would appear that Hezbollah does not have additional drones flying overhead to record the aftermath of these attacks, at least in select instances.
Hezbollah conducted more fiber-optic FPV strikes on Israeli vehicles in Lebanon, including two ‘Merkava’ Mk.4 tanks, a D9 Caterpillar armored bulldozer, and what appears to be a rare ‘Namer’ heavy IFV equipped with a turret mounting a 30 mm Bushmaster Mk 2 cannon. 1/ https://t.co/ms2nagNHrDpic.twitter.com/WDs6M3SpwW
Another video shows claimed fiber-optic controlled FPV drone strikes on the open hatch of a Merkava as well as on an Eitan Armored Personnel Carrier parked behind a building. Again, there is no clear indication of any damage to either vehicle.
In a scene also reminiscent of the fight in Ukraine, Hezbollah used a fiber-optic controlled FPV drone to fly into a building. This is a tactic that both Ukrainian and Russian troops regularly train on and a skill they repeatedly hone.
🇮🇷🇮🇱🇱🇧 In a similar vein, the fact that Israel operates many very heavily armoured vehicles incentivizes Hizballah to employ its armed “FPV” multirotor drones against IDF personnel, whether in the open or in inside structures. Note that armed “FPV” multirotor drones of the… https://t.co/j9fCoY6Y9gpic.twitter.com/dwwrzpHdnX
While no cables are visible in the drones used in any of these videos, the lack of degradation in their video feeds, even as they approach low to the ground is a good indication of a fiber-optic connection.
It is difficult to know the full extent of Hezbollah’s use of FPV drones of any kind or what damage they are inflicting. Much of the evidence of the attacks, Brobst notes, comes from the release of Hezbollah videos.
“There is evidence that Hezbollah had used FPVs by at least 2024, but significantly fewer videos exist from that time period,” he explained. “If Hezbollah had conducted successful attacks previously, they would likely have been releasing videos of them for propaganda effect, as they are doing now.”
The following video shows one of those Hezbollah FPV drone attacks from September 2024.
🇮🇱🇱🇧 Hezbollah uses a FPV drone to hit an Israeli HMMWV in Jal al-Alam
If Hezbollah has adjusted to new tactics from the Ukraine war and has drones and operators at scale, Israel might be in big trouble … if they move.
Getting a full picture on the extent of the damage caused is difficult given the IDF’s strict censorship policies.
“The IDF has not released hard numbers on this unfortunately,” Brobst stated.
While the IDF does not acknowledge these events, its operational updates for March 26 “include a reference to several soldiers of the 7th Brigade sustaining injuries, one of whom was killed,” FDD stated. “It is not clear whether these casualties were the result of a Hezbollah FPV attack, but their unit is an armored brigade known to operate Israel’s Merkava 4 tank.”
A senior IDF official told The War Zone these videos show Hezbollah using FPV drones “with accurate manual control and sensible targeting (top of vehicles, weak points), the clips do show genuine strike capability, and some hits are probably real.”
However, “the videos cannot prove actual damage to a Merkava Mark IV…Footage is selectively edited, so success rates are likely overstated.”
The bottom line, he added is that “FPVs are a credible and growing technical threat, but the clips are evidence of capability — not proof of consistent effectiveness or system failure.”
Israel does have some means of countering drone attacks on armor. In addition to fielding electronic warfare equipment designed to jam drone radio signals (which does not work against fiber optic FPVs), some Israeli military vehicles are equipped with the combat-proven Trophy active protection systems (APS). The system uses radar detect and trigger small hit-to-kill projectiles at incoming threats. It was built mainly to defeat anti-tank missiles and RPGs, but new upgrades of the system have counter-drone capabilities, as well. You can read more about this emerging feature set and its potential here. It is unclear if any of Israel’s armor in Lebanon have this newer active protection system enhancement or if upgrades to earlier systems can also provide some of this capability.
Trophy® APS – The land maneuver enabler
Israel is not alone in being with FPV drones fired by Iranian proxies. As we reported last month, FPV drones targeted a U.S. military Black Hawk helicopter and a critical air defense radar at an American base in Iraq. Khataib Hezbollah, a group separate from the similarly named Lebanese group, is suspected of being behind the attack. This was one of a number of FPV attacks in Arab countries where U.S. forces are based.
You can see one of the drones hit the Black Hawk in the following video.
An Iranian-backed militia carried out a successful FPV drone strike on Camp Victory in Iraq yesterday, successfully hitting multiple targets.
The widespread use of FPV drones, both radio- and fiber-optic-controlled, has made maneuver warfare in Ukraine exceedingly difficult for either side. Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine have been making improvements to extend the range of their FPV drones, especially those controlled by fiber optic cables. This includes bigger spools allowing longer ranges as well as additions of things like wings to improve aerodynamics which also increases range. Both sides are also using a variety of drones as relays to increase the range of their radio-controlled drones.
You can see one example of a winged Ukrainian FPV drone in the video below.
Another Ukrainian variant of a winged FPP, this time recorded by the Russians on a mission armed with a PG-7 series warhead. The intention is to dramatically increase the range of a standard FPV, and it is promising to be a very significant development in the small drone war. https://t.co/iVv6EyJq7Bpic.twitter.com/sqYZEjcj7N
At the moment, there is no indication that Israel has any plans to cease its invasion of southern Lebanon, which has emerged as a main sticking point in negotiations to end the war against Iran. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that there was no ceasefire with Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
“Dear residents of the North, I am proud of you. You continue to stand firm.
I wish to inform you: There is no ceasefire in Lebanon. We are continuing to strike Hezbollah with full force, and we will not stop until we restore your security. pic.twitter.com/k2JeKXEMBQ
— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) April 9, 2026
How Hezbollah’s FPV capabilities will impact Israeli operations isn’t clear at this time, but if anything else, they are another sign of the proliferation of these capabilities and the challenges of defending against them.
A relative tells BBC those killed were civilians and not Hezbollah operatives, but the Israel Defence Forces says it was targeting “terrorist infrastructure”.
