Dear friends and prayer partners,
Israel has just come through an intense 12-day war with Iran that showed the IDF’s superior firepower, as the nation indeed rose like a lion (Numbers 23:24) to directly confront this fanatical enemy. We thank God for being once again the “Keeper of Israel” (Psalm 121:4-5), for the nation’s anti-missile systems, and for the safety of bomb shelters that spared countless lives.
Yet we also saw that, of the 550 Iranian ballistic missiles deliberately launched at major Israeli cities, some 40 of these massive half-ton warheads managed to slip through the nation’s vaunted air defenses to wreak death and destruction up and down the country. The current toll is 28 Israelis killed – mostly women, children and the elderly – while another 3,000 were injured. In addition, hundreds of apartment buildings were gutted by the enormous blasts and there are now over 10,000 Israelis left homeless, most having fled with just the clothes on their backs.
The ICEJ’s Aid team quickly visited the site of the worst impact in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, where eight people died when a direct missile strike sheared off the entire side of a twelve-storey building and severely damaged 75 surrounding apartment complexes. My colleague Nicole Yoder and her team are seasoned aid workers who have seen many disaster sites over the decades, but what they saw in Bat Yam was shocking. There were gutted homes, mounds of rubble, and flipped cars in every direction.
The powerful rocket blast in Bat Yam alone left some 2,300 Israelis homeless, including many elderly couples, scores of children, and a large number of new immigrants with little means of support.
The ICEJ has committed to help meet the most urgent needs of these dislocated families, such as clothing, food, medicines, diapers, and hygiene supplies. After providing their basic necessities, our focus will turn to assisting the children with sorely needed trauma counselling. We will be helping other newly displaced families across Israel as well, but we need your help!
Please join us in showing these destitute Israeli families that Christians are their truest friends. Many have lost everything due to these cruel missiles. Your gift to our Israel Emergency Aid Fund can help us provide vouchers for these homeless families to purchase food, clothing, and other essential items, and offer the children summer therapy camps and other urgent trauma care.
And keep praying for Israel as it recovers from this intense conflict and seeks to finally end the fighting in Gaza and bring the last hostages home. I would encourage you to join our daily Global Prayer Gathering online as hundreds of Christians come together each day to pray for Israel and the region. I look forward seeing you there.
Blessings from Jerusalem!
Dr. Jürgen Bühler
ICEJ President
