Israel (MNN) — One year ago today, the world witnessed a tragedy that pierced the heart of Israel and sent shockwaves beyond its borders. On the morning of October 7th last year, Hamas-led armed groups brutally murdered over 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, including women and children. Another 250 were taken hostage.
Today, 97 hostages are still in Hamas captivity, their fates unknown. This attack spurred a war with Israel that still rages today.
For those who lived through it, October 7th will forever be a day that changed everything.
Pastor Tesfalidet Kahasi with Beit Hallel Congregation says, “We are well experienced with sirens because we live here in Israel and hear such awful sounds. But that morning was something different. We said, ‘What’s going on?’
“We just turned on the TV and we started watching the media and we saw something terrible — something that we hadn’t seen before, something that is very hard to understand and to believe.”
A home in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. In the October 7, 2023 surprise attack on the Gaza border communities, Hamas either killed, injured or abducted about one quarter of the 400 residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Before October 7th last year, Israeli society was facing deep social and political unrest, with protests taking over city streets. “In Israel, there was a lot of division,” Kahasi remembers. “I was afraid for a civil war.”
After the Hamas attack, many of those divides melted away as the nation of Israel came together to mourn and support its defense. Yet, the divide between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East remains stark and has grown in some ways.
Kahasi says, “When we go outside, the Palestinians are hateful. The Palestinians hate Israel. And we, the Israelis, also [do] the same thing. When you say ‘Palestinian,’ there is some hatred that you can see on the face of the people.”
To the world, a genuine friendship between Arabs and Jews would be unusual, at best. In the wake of October 7th, such a friendship is perhaps even unbelievable.
“But listen,” Kahasi says, “I have an Arab pastor brother from Nazareth, Pastor Salim. He’s an Arab Christian brother. When he’s coming to our church, I love him, I hug him like a brother. Not only like a brother. He is my brother!”
The Church Can Show the Way Forward
Brotherhood in Christ may not smooth over every nuance of conflict in the Middle East. There is still much even fellow Christians disagree on.
Yet, to a world so bent on tribalism and discord, Kahasi says the Church must stand as the model of biblical forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity in love.
Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo courtesy of Dariusz Kanclerz/Unsplash)
“We need to get together, especially the born-again Christians that drank the same Spirit. We need to hold hands together. We need to stir together. We need to combine our faith. We need to pray together. It doesn’t matter — Arabs, Jews, Gentiles, Greeks. It doesn’t matter where they are from or where we are from. We drank the same Spirit.”
Kahasi recently witnessed this profound truth after he virtually attended a conference with Christian leaders from around the world.
“There were a lot of leaders from different countries — from Iran, from Iraq, from Syria, from Lebanon, from a lot of countries,” Kahasi says. “I told them, ‘We are brothers. We drank the same Spirit…. We have to join hands. We have to pray together because we have a powerful name, and that is the name of the Prince of Peace, Yeshua.’
“I was on my way home on the same day of that conference, and then they stopped me. They called me by WhatsApp and they told me, ‘We need you here. We need to see you, and we need your prayers.’ So I stopped somewhere and I joined them by Zoom, and then I started praying. The Holy Spirit gave me some words for them.
“And then, guess what? There was an Iranian brother there. Iranian brother! He starts to prophesy over me, and then he starts bringing some great words.
“There was a sister there with hijab because she came from a very rooted Islamic family. So she wore a hijab, and then she starts to prophesy over me. You know, I’m Israeli. I’m a Jew. And then this lady from Iran, she starts prophesying over me.
“Can you believe that this thing happened because of the Holy Spirit? Because of the Spirit that we drank? Because of the Prince of Peace, Yeshua? Hallelujah!”
Pray for Israel
Steeple in Jerusalem, Israel. (Photo courtesy of Jonny Gios/Unsplash)
The first anniversary of October 7th is marked with grim remembrance and grief. For those who lost loved ones or are still waiting to learn the fate of those taken hostage, it’s a devastating milestone.
Jesus is close to the broken-hearted and weeps with those who weep.
Kahasi says the people of Israel need to know the comfort, hope, and salvation of Christ the Messiah. He asks, “Pray for this nation, especially for the congregation of this land…. There is a lot to do in Israel. There is a lot of harvest in Israel. So pray for us. Pray for us to encourage ourselves in the God of Israel and then to stand together and to win souls for the Kingdom.”
Header photo courtesy of Cole Keister/Unsplash.
