Israel (MNN) — Israel orders a “complete siege” of Gaza and calls up thousands of reserve troops as war rages for a third day between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants.

Israel is expected to launch a ground incursion, and it cut off electricity, food, and fuel to Gaza yesterday. A formal declaration of war on Sunday followed the deadliest raid on Israel’s territory in 50 years.

On Saturday morning, “2,000 terrorists walked out of the Gaza Strip into Israel, then started kidnapping and killing people. Nobody knew what was happening. That was at the end of a Jewish holiday, and it was Shabbat,” Uncharted Ministries’ Tom Doyle says.

“We haven’t seen anything this massive since the Yom Kippur War in 1973.”

Christians suffer on both sides as the death toll continues to soar. Learn how Uncharted Ministries partners with believers in Israel and the Gaza Strip here.

“[Many of our] friends in Israel are saying, ‘I have a cousin, I have a nephew that is missing or got called up into the military, and we don’t know where they are,’” Doyle says.

“In Gaza, there’s an underground church of Muslim background believers we’re praying for [because] we haven’t heard from them.”

A rocket hit a vehicle in Rishon Lezion.
(Wikimedia Commons)

Analysts fear the war will spill across borders. Iran and its proxies praised the incursion on Sunday. “We’re praying that the northern border holds as Hezbollah is trying to attack Israel,” Doyle says.

“Hezbollah is armed to the teeth in Lebanon, and they’re also financed by Iran. Iran is the major player behind this [present conflict.]”

We cannot alter the current events in Israel. But we know the God who holds the nations in His hands. Pray for the war to end.

“It’s easy to choose sides and say things against the other side, but God loves Jews and Palestinians. There’s room in His heart to love them both,” Doyle says.

“Pray for [no further] loss of life on either side. Pray that the Lord would intervene, bring calm into this region, and keep it from spiraling into something worse than it already is.”

Find more prayer suggestions here from International Prayer Connections.

 

Header image depicts the remains of the Sderot city police station. (Photo by Yoav Keren/Wikimedia Commons)