Viral Image Shows IDF Soldier Smiling While Cooking In Occupied Lebanese Home, Sparks Backlash

Last Updated:April 20, 2026, 21:29 IST

Lebanese journalist and filmmaker Diana Moukalled said the image was an insult “to people’s memory and dignity”.

A viral image showing an Israeli soldier smiling while cooking inside a home in southern Lebanon has triggered widespread backlash on social media.

The photograph, shared on Sunday by Lebanese outlet Bint Jbeil News, shows a female Israeli soldier standing in a kitchen with food ingredients spread across a table. The image was reportedly taken in Bint Jbeil, a town in Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh governorate.

The publisher captioned the image: “Violation in its full ‘elegance’. When the killer and occupier cook in the kitchen of the land’s people."

The image quickly drew strong reactions on social media, with many users expressing anger over what they called as the normalisation of occupation. Lebanese journalist and filmmaker Diana Moukalled said the image was an insult “to people’s memory and dignity".

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In a widely shared post, she wrote that the scene reflected the forced absence of families from their homes while others occupied them.

“What hurts the most in this image is that it makes the loss unbearably harsh. Here we’re talking about a house that still has its greenery, still has the life of its family, but they alone are the forcibly absent ones," she said, adding that the image captured the reality of displacement and loss in southern Lebanon.

“This is occupation and deliberate insult to people’s memory, dignity, and their inherent right to return to what they planted with their own hands," Moukalled added.

Several users on X described the image as deeply unsettling. One post said the scene showed a soldier “picking vegetables and cooking in someone else’s home while the owners are banned from returning".

“A human scum, an intrusive squatter with no qualms about occupying homelands or storming homes and exploiting what’s inside, living off parasitism and sucking the blood of others…," another user wrote.

“I want to curse with the vilest insults and spew the most loathsome profanities, sinking to the absolute bottom of depravity and filth in a cesspool of vulgarity and baseness…" a comment read.

The backlash comes amid ongoing occupation in southern Lebanon despite a recent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. While thousands of displaced residents have started returning to some areas, the Israeli military has warned civilians against going back to dozens of villages, citing ongoing security operations.

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz has said the military would act with “full force" against any perceived threats, even during the truce.

The military published a map showing its “forward defence line" and an area stretching the length of the Israel-Lebanon border where it said its forces were operating to dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure and “prevent direct threats to communities in northern Israel".

(With inputs from agencies)

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