Displaying items by tag: palestinians

The roots of violence, despair and hatred between Palestinians and Israelis goes deep, generated by possession of the land. The latest Israeli attack on the West Bank targeted the ‘unified command centre for the Jenin Brigade’ which has been at the heart of twelve months of escalating violence (over fifty recent attacks have come from there). Bulldozers drove through the Palestinian refugee camp which was also attacked by aircraft, reviving a tactic it halted two decades ago. Eight Palestinians were killed and one Israeli. For over a year, army raids have been linked to a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and rampages by Jewish settlers against Palestinian villages. Israel said it was striking terrorist infrastructure targets and armed gunmen in the Jenin camp and shared documents showing Jenin as a ‘stronghold of terrorist activity’ where half the people belong to militant groups. However, the scale of the attack on Jenin has drawn strong criticism from many sourcres.

Arab reports indicate a Palestinian terror group based in Syria with ties to Iran and Hezbollah is actively preparing for a new series of attacks inside Israel. Speaking from Syria, Fadi Malach, commander of the Galilean Wolves, said, ‘We are in the midst of preparations for a series of additional operations inside Israel, despite Israel’s warning to Hezbollah, who might go on another adventure.’ Malach also said that his group was responsible for a roadside bombing at the Megiddo Junction in northern Israel on 13 March, which injured an Israeli motorist. The man who planted the bomb was subsequently killed by Israeli soldiers while driving back towards the Lebanese border. Explosives and a weapon were found in the vehicle, and the terrorist wore a suicide bomb belt. Malach said Galilean Wolves have been active since 2004, in an effort to liberate Galilee in the first stage, and they are not co-opted by Iran.

Following two nights of violence between police and ‘agitators’ at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, 34 rockets were launched into Israel’s civilian population from southern Lebanon terrorists. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said 25 of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system. See Israel’s military then carried out air strikes on Hamas targets in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Gaza retaliated with dozens more rockets. IDF warplanes struck Hamas’ infrastructures in Lebanon and Gaza, including an underground shaft to construct weapons, three weapons workshops and an underground terrorist tunnel. Another 44 rockets from Gaza towards southern Israel were intercepted. See On Good Friday, two British-Israeli sisters were killed and their mother later died after being shot in the West Bank. The next day, an Italian tourist was killed and seven others injured in a Tel Aviv car-ramming. Benjamin Netanyahu has called up army and police reservists.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is an Iran-supported terror organisation. On 27 January Israeli special forces conducted an unusually complex early morning raid in Jenin, eliminating a PIJ cell suspected of planning major attacks. The Associated Press reported nine dead including four Hamas terrorists and three from PIJ. The PIJ responded by issuing threats of escalation. We can pray for an increase in Israel's success against terrorism as accurate and actionable intelligence is passed on to Israel’s security forces. Hours after the raid seven people were killed outside a synagogue, and two Israelis were shot in occupied East Jerusalem. The worst violence in years across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories continues. On 29 January Pope Francis said, ‘It is with great pain that I hear news coming from the Holy Land.’ He called on Israel and Palestinians to engage in dialogue, pursue peace and halt the spiral of death.

Joe Biden plans to open a consulate in Jerusalem. This amounts to an actual US embassy to the Palestinians on Israeli territory. Many believe its true purpose is to undermine Israeli sovereignty in its own capital city. It will also jeopardise future prospects for peace between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. As well as betraying Israel, Biden's diplomatic signalling also appeases his hard-left supporters and is a betrayal of the Palestinian people. They have suffered too long and too hard under the hostility of their leadership, which has consistently refused to entertain all proposals for peace with Israel that could lead to the establishment of their own state. Successive Palestinian leaders have been encouraged in their inflexibility by the US and Europe, who have for decades extracted concession after concession from Israel while Palestinians make none. The intended consulate in Israel's capital will encourage greater support for Hamas, currently ruling Gaza.

Many participating groups in 2019’s Eurovision Song Contest are already in Tel Aviv, with more arriving daily. The finale will be on 18 May, in the same week as Palestinians commemorate Nakba. This was 71 years ago, when 700,000 people left their homes at the time when Israel was born. Activists say the venue for the competition was built on land of a former Arab village which emptied in 1948. As anxiety mounts, the foreign ministry spokesman, Emmanuel Nahshon, said, ‘This is going to be a huge party with thousands of people participating, but we will remain extremely vigilant in order to make sure that no-one comes here to disturb and destroy,’ The event, watched by a global TV audience, will also become a focus for protests against the country’s treatment of Palestinians. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to hold Eurovision in Jerusalem, to add weight to Israel’s campaign for global recognition of the holy city as Israel’s capital.

On 28 September, the IDF neutralised 100+ explosives thrown at them by over 20,000 people rioting at five locations along the Gaza Strip frontier. At the border fence protesters, encouraged by Hamas, burned dozens of tyres, using the thick black smoke as a screen to throw rocks and explosives at Israeli troops. IDF soldiers responded with tear gas and gunfire ,and Israeli aircraft carried out two airstrikes on Hamas positions in the Strip. A statement said, ‘With armed terrorists only minutes away from Israeli families, it is the IDF’s duty to protect them’. A tweet said, ‘Imagine a mob of 20K people, throwing bombs & grenades, attempting to reach your home. The people of southern Israel don’t have to imagine; this is happening right now, regularly, on Israel’s border with Gaza.’

Please continue to pray over the Gaza border. In the third Friday of protests, 10,000-15,000 Palestinians took part in violent riots in different locations along the border, and again tried to cross the barrier; they intend to continue every Friday until 14 May. They threw Molotov cocktails and explosives at Israeli soldiers. Over 100 Palestinians were hurt and one man killed. They tried to use kites to fly Molotov cocktails toward Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops, and were photographed placing an explosive device on the fence. On one side of the border there are watchtowers and anti-terror barriers: on the other, a tent city of Palestinian protesters. Meanwhile the IDF exposed and neutralised a fifth underground Hamas tunnel running from northern Gaza into southern Israel. It was connected to an intricate network of tunnels running through Gaza. See

The ‘March of Return’ in the Gaza Strip began on Good Friday. 30,000 Gazans overwhelmed the border security fence, and the resultant clashes with Israeli forces resulted in 18 dead and 1,400 injured. Israel has been accused of using disproportionate force against what became a vast violent march. Hamas has called for mass demonstrations to continue for seven weeks. There are fears that this could turn into war on several fronts. Hamas is indebted to Iran. If major conflicts erupt in Gaza, Iran might order Hezbollah in Lebanon and in Syria to attack the Jewish State. The march goes beyond resistance. A situation is erupting, and political issues in the region have resurfaced. Violent Israel-Gaza border activity was described locally as ‘peaceful protests being infiltrated by terrorists’ and ‘Israel exercising its right to defend its sovereignty and protect citizens from terrorism’.

Thursday night was storming, and in the hills of Samaria, a few miles north of Shilo, an Israeli bus traveling from a nearby settlement veered into a guardrail, broke through and plunged down the 230 foot embankment, coming to rest on its top.  This is in an area of the contested “Territories” with communities of both Jews and Palestinian Arabs, but which is patrolled and under the oversight of Israel.  A Palestinian family witnessed the crash from their home; they immediately called police, then tore out of their home, down the hill to render aid. When police, ambulances and troops arrived to help, there were the Arab family members down in the ravine in their pajamas in the pouring rain with flashlights trying to extract survivors and help those who were wounded.  Working together, all were pulled from the wreckage, and taken up to the road where a medical helicopter was waiting.  Two were dead, seven others wounded.   A Captain medical officer at the scene credited the quick work of the Palestinian family with saving lives.  One observer commented how the “complex reality” of the region was underscored by the arrival of troops to assist.  They had been part of a brigade a few kilometers away in hot pursuit of a Palestinian terrorist who during the previous 24 hours had carried out two shooting attacks.  When word of the accident reached them, they decided to split up so that some could come assist.  When they arrived at the bus, there were members of a Palestinian family working in the rain to administer aid to Jewish settlers trapped under the bus.

When word of the accident was written up in Israeli newspapers, it was with a kind of wonder at the grace shown by this family to Jews in distress.  “Palestinian Family was First to help Bus Crash Victims, Call Police”  read one headline; “Palestinian Family saves Israeli lives in Nighttime Bus Crash” read another.  There is great distrust and hostility between Arab and Jewish communities in this area. The name of the family wasn’t given—likely to protect them from reprisals by their own neighbors for daring to offer kindness to Israelis in distress. 

We are touched by the actions of this “Good Samaritan” family—in the heart of modern-day Samaria.  It is so essential that we realize, for all the contention and hatred roiling in this most-contested place on earth, that God’s merciful Spirit of grace is working, crossing through borders and ethnic and religious walls.  And “a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”

PLEASE PRAY:

*  Blessing upon the “nameless” Palestinian family which came to the aid of the stricken Israeli bus.  Pray that the light of God’s Grace will shine into their lives, and illumine them on the path He has for them.

• A capacity in Israel to see one’s “neighbor” beyond ethnic lines, even, when possible, beyond the lines drawn  in active regional conflict.  That we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, whoever they are—because God does.  That we must not depersonalize the souls of those on “the other side.”
• For the Spirit of God in kindness to draw Palestinian Arabs into revelation and the salvation of the One who loves them, who is the Saviour of the World.  When this happens, may it not be they more than any others who will be able to provoke their Hebrew neighbors to the jealousy Paul speaks of in Romans 10 and 11.  So that All Israel shall be Saved!

Martin & Norma Sarvis,

Jerusalem