28 October 2023

In these Weekly Updates we wish to inform you about some of the developments that do not reach the headlines of the mainstream media. The purpose is that we may have better understanding, in order that we may pray with increased power into the heavenly realms (Ephesians 3:10). 
 
This week’s highlights:

• According to the IDF, Hamas is holding 224 hostages, of which four have been released
• Hamas is deliberately using human shields and burying its military operations in civilian targets. The IDF has issued a graphic overlay of a satellite image of Shifa Hospital, showing what it says are Hamas command centers hidden underneath the hospital
• So far, about 200,000 Israelis have been displaced, about 600,000 Palestinians have been displaced 
• Iran was behind the Hamas massacres 
• The conflict could quickly spread in the north (Lebanon) and east (Syria) 
• Rockets have been fired from Yemen 
• Israel has commenced its land operation in Gaza 
• An alarming level of hatred of Israel and the Jewish people is being displayed in the protests held in many Western cities and university campuses.
• UN Secretary-General Gueterres asserted that Israel’s occupation is the cause of the Hamas attacks, - a remark that has caused international outcry. 

• Israel’s leaders will have great wisdom in responding, achieving great precision in their self-defence and minimizing civilian loss  
• Every single one of the hostages held by Hamas will be released unharmed and without conditions 
• all innocent lives will be spared 
• the leaders of all surrounding nations will not attack Israel
• the leaders of Iran, Hamas and all other Islamist groups will be miraculously delivered of their genocidal hatred of the Jewish people 
• the people of Israel – Jews, Arabs and all others - will be united in seeking the Lord of Hosts as their savior and redeemer 
• Satan will be defeated, and the Lord Himself will intervene.

The Editorial Team - Israel & Christians Today

Israel: Hamas’s main operations base is under Shifa Hospital in Gaza City
 
The IDF issues a graphic overlay of a satellite image of Shifa Hospital, showing what it says are Hamas command centers hidden underneath the hospital.

Iran is behind this conflict
 
Jonathan Spyer: “But what erupted out of the Gaza Strip on October 7, spreading massacre and horror has nothing to do with the ‘occupation’, the ‘two state solution’ and all the tired terminology of that dispute. It represents the combination of two powerful and related forces. … Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement, to give it its full name, is the local representative of a series of political/military movements stretching along the contiguous space from Egypt up to Iraq, which for better or worse appear to be able to mobilize the support of a significant mass of their respective populations in the service of political violence…. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the element which provides Hamas’s missile array, instructs its cadres in the home grown building of rockets, and which almost certainly provided the space and the concealment needed for Hamas to train and prepare for October 7.  For what purpose?  Iran is committed to a long war strategy against Israel, which is intended to end with the Jewish state’s demise and collapse.”   

Who Says Hamas Does Not Represent The Palestinians?
 
Bassam Tawil: Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Abbas's silence is a rambunctious approval of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis. Let there be no mistake about it: both Hamas and Abbas represent a majority of Palestinians whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel.

Iran Behind Hamas’ planned genocide 
 
Majid Rafizadeh: “The Biden administration and the European Union have pursued this dangerous policy -- not just of appeasement, but also of financing terrorists; of supporting a regime that chants "Death to America," "Death to Israel"; that plots to push the US out of the Middle East; that is committed to uprooting and replacing Israel; that has zealously been targeting American citizens and American assets, and that is one of only four state sponsors of terrorism, as well as a leading violator of human rights. It is high time to put Iran's regime out of business.”

Jonathan Tobin: “Comments by Secretary-General António Guterres are the latest instance of how the world body sanctions antisemitism and lends legitimacy to a Palestinian victimhood narrative that has no basis in truth.”