Multiple surprise attacks from Hamas leave hundreds dead and thousands injured.
PRAY FIRST for the people of the land of Israel, particularly the innocents on all sides of the conflict.
The relative calm around the Yom Kippur holiday in Israel was shattered Saturday morning when Hamas militants from Gaza invaded Israel, brutally killing civilians and soldiers and taking other civilians as hostages back into the tunnels of Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed his nation Saturday. “Citizens of Israel, we are at war. Not an operation, not a round [of fighting,] at war! This morning Hamas initiated a murderous surprise attack against the state of Israel and its citizens.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog delivered an address Sunday night with a brief update. The Israeli Air Force conducted airstrike sorties over Gaza, hitting around 500 targets, but rocket fire continued from Gaza.
In a call with the prime minister Sunday, President Biden “pledged his full support for the Government and people of Israel in the face of an unprecedented and appalling assault by Hamas terrorists.” Later in televised remarks from the White House, President Biden said, “The United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their backs.”
By Monday, October 9, the Israeli Defense Forces, in its “Operation Swords of Iron,” had cut off power and fuel to Gaza and had forces sealing the border. Individuals from Hamas were still attempting to enter Israel. “Nothing is allowed in or out. There will be no fuel, electricity or food supplies,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday, ordering a “complete siege” of Gaza. “We fight animals in human form and proceed accordingly.”
Although the Iron Dome has been bringing down a number of rockets, the sheer number being fired off at the same time from multiple locations within Gaza has allowed many to slip through the air defense system.
By midday on Monday, the death toll on both sides soared to over 1,500. Eleven Americans are among the dead. The U.S. National Security Council cannot estimate how many Americans remain missing.
On Israel’s Northern border with Lebanon, the Hezbollah military group fired rockets into Israel “in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.”
There have been reports that Iranian security officials helped Hamas plan the attacks.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced he had ordered an aircraft carrier group to move into the eastern Mediterranean “to bolster regional deterrence efforts.”
Scripture maintains that God has made special provision for Israel. “For who touches you touches the apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8).
HOW THEN SHOULD WE PRAY:
— God tell us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you!” (Psalm 122:6)
— Israel is STILL His people and inheritance. “But the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. “He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions. Deuteronomy 32:9-11
— Jerusalem will be the scene of Christ’s return and will recognize Him as her Messiah. “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. Zechariah 12:10
CONSIDER THESE ITEMS FOR PRAYER:
- Pray for an end to the atrocities and horribleness of war.
- Pray for the release of hostages.
- Pray that the conflict will not draw in other nations of the region.
- Pray that God would place His hand of protection on the nation of Israel.
- Pray for the innocent victims on both sides of the conflict who are being caught up in the war not by their own doings.
- Pray for reasonableness and strength in the responses of the United States.
Sources: ABC News, Times of Israel, CNN, Fox News, Reuters
