Poland’s foreign minister said Monday that Israeli soldiers “admit to war crimes” and killed Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, in the wake of an IDF reservist posting online a photo of himself destroying a statue of Jesus in Lebanon.

“It’s good that [Foreign] Minister [Gideon] Sa’ar apologized quickly; there was something to apologize for,” Radek Sikorski wrote on X. “That soldier should be punished, but lessons should also be drawn regarding the way they are being trained.”

“IDF soldiers themselves admit to war crimes. They killed not only civilian Palestinians but even their own hostages,” Sikorski continued, referring to the war in the Gaza Strip.

Israel vehemently denies it has committed war crimes or genocide in Gaza, and says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities, stressing that Hamas uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

Sa’ar rejected the “grave, baseless, and slanderous statements against the IDF.”

“What you wrote reveals profound ignorance and a deep lack of understanding,” he wrote on X, addressing his remarks at Sikorski. “During every war, there are operational accidents, in which military forces are also harmed by fire from their own army.”

Sa’ar insisted that there is “no Western army that fights terrorism more precisely and on the basis of better intelligence than the IDF, with a constant effort to minimize harm to non-combatants. The ratio of terrorist casualties to non-combatants is better than that of any other Western army. In fact — of any other fighting army in the world.”

“The IDF is a professional and ethical army,” he wrote, adding that Western democratic armies learn from the IDF.

I strongly reject your unfounded, and defamatory statements against the IDF. What you wrote reflects ignorance and a deep lack of understanding.In every war, there are operational accidents, including cases where a military force is harmed by its own fire. Unfortunately, in… https://t.co/nVK6hxkW5f — Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) April 20, 2026

I strongly reject your unfounded, and defamatory statements against the IDF.

What you wrote reflects ignorance and a deep lack of understanding.In every war, there are operational accidents, including cases where a military force is harmed by its own fire. Unfortunately, in… https://t.co/nVK6hxkW5f

— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) April 20, 2026

“I suggest that instead of preaching morality to others — you personally condemn the shameful antisemitic display we saw in the Polish parliament last week,” he said, referring to an MP unfurling an Israeli flag with a swastika in the middle instead of a Star of David.

The IDF confirmed overnight Sunday the authenticity of an image circulated online showing a soldier smashing a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer, and said it would take action against those involved. On Monday it said the soldier had been identified.

The picture was taken in the Christian village of Debel in southern Lebanon. The IDF had operated against Hezbollah in the area surrounding the community amid a recent bout of fighting with the Iran-backed terror group.

The war in Gaza broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. As the IDF battled against terror groups, three escaped hostages were mistakenly killed by Israeli troops in December 2023. In September 2024, the IDF said that an investigation found that three other hostages were killed as a result of a “byproduct” of an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, although the exact cause of death was still unknown.

A shaky ceasefire was reached in Gaza in October 2025, though skirmishes have continued, with both sides accusing the other of violations. All the hostages, dead and alive, have been returned to Israel.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 72,000 people in the Strip have been killed during the war — including over 600 since the October 2025 ceasefire — though the toll does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The Israeli military believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every slain terror operative.

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1 ToI in southern Lebanon26 years later, IDF restores its south Lebanon security zone — with key changes

2 Reporter's notebookGreen in the valley: Israel’s abandoned fishponds are turning into a solar goldmine

3 IDF confirms photo of soldier smashing Jesus statue in Lebanon is genuine, vows action

4 Trump managing Iran war based on conflicting caprices that blindside his aides — report

5 Trump says talks to take place Tuesday, as Iran says it has ‘no plans’ to attend

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Israel-Poland relations

2023-2025 Israel-Hamas war

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