“Not since the Holocaust have more Jews been murdered on one day.”

My heart was warmed today. Messianic Pastor Avi Tekle posted on our Tikkun Israel group chat a video of soldiers singing “Am Yisrael Chai” (The people of Israel are Alive), and he and his team joined in.

Caption: Here are Avi and Stas (in the middle), flanked by two Messianic pastors, Yevgeni and Stefan.

El Al, our national airline, is bringing back soldiers from all over the world. Remember, we have a reserve army. People were living their “Clark Kent” lives when suddenly duty called. While Israelis are not superheroes, there is a superhero feeling. You can see pictures on social media of reservists taking photos with their families before they leave or as they go to the airport to come home and protect the homeland.

But even with a little encouraging news, the horror stories continue.

Pastor Michael Beener tells a harrowing tale of being trapped in his house with his family all day without electricity or water. Outside, they heard gunshots. All Israel News writes:

“I was supposed to wake up at 6:30 a.m. for a scheduled morning prayer, but the Lord woke me up at 6:00. At 6:20, missile attacks began. Around 6:40, for the first time in our life here in Sderot, we heard shouts of ‘Allahu Akbar,' and shots of automatic weapons outside,” Beener related…

“On our street, literally meters away from our building, a bus stopped to let people out, so they could run to the shelter place. Unfortunately, a pickup truck with Hamas terrorists was passing by at the same time. They opened fire; several people were murdered instantly,” Beener shared. “The same was happening in other neighborhoods.”

There is no Israeli that has not been touched by this tragedy. I just spoke to my daughter. In tears, she told me her boyfriend's best friend’s sister was among the dead. Her boyfriend is broken, and you can only imagine the agony that the family is going through. These are the stories for almost every Israeli, as we are just finding out who is dead, alive, or kidnapped.

A reporter for i24 news quoted a commander saying this was not a military campaign (by Hamas) but a massacre. The reporter was visibly shaken, as just meters from her were the dead bodies of people slaughtered, shot, and burned alive. Guy Azriel tells of bodies found hugging each other as they were burned alive by the terrorists because they would not leave their safe rooms.

Hamas savages paraded the naked body of a German female tattoo artist in the back of a truck. In this Twitter post, her mother confirms that it is indeed Shani Louk.

Over 1,500 dead bodies of Hamas terrorists have been found. On Saturday morning, as this was unfolding, we thought the number of infiltrators might be two dozen. It never entered our minds that it was well over 1,000… maybe as high as 2,000.

President Isaac Herzog wrote today in TIME online, “Not since the Holocaust have more Jews been murdered on one day.”

"Not since the Holocaust have we seen such images of innocent Jewish mothers and children, teenagers and old women loaded into trucks and taken away into captivity. Not since the vile crimes of ISIS have we witnessed such barbarity. Indeed, this is what Hamas have done: imported, adopted, and replicated the savagery of ISIS. Whole families have been wiped out. Mothers and fathers, with babes in arms, murdered in cold blood. Young people at a party. Old people—even Holocaust survivors themselves. Massacred. Their bodies burned and abused. Along with dozens of Israelis taken away are other nationalities."

In an interview today on GOD TV, I reminded them that while many are saying this is Israel’s 9/11, per capita, it is 10x worse! It would be like 35,000 Americans being murdered in the Twin Towers twenty-two years ago.

How you can pray!

Remember, we are people who believe in prayer.

• First of all, pray for the miraculous release of the hostages. This is priority #1!

• Pray for the families who are mourning the loss of loved ones. Pray also for the families whose members have been kidnapped. I cannot even imagine their agony.

• Pray that in this place of agony, Israelis would call out to God. There are so many videos online that eloquently share the message of Yeshua in Hebrew, including those that play on our station, Shelanu.tv. Pray that Israelis find these messages and find the Messiah.

• Pray for the safety of our soldiers. Pray that the reservists can quickly be integrated into their units. And pray for their safety as they come home from other nations to serve.

• Pray for our leaders. Politicians typically cannot help themselves when it comes to thinking politically. “How old does this make me look?” “How do I save my job?” … pray that they will 1) ask God for wisdom, 2) not act with wild vengeance (which leads to mistakes), and 3) come up with the right plan to neutralize all jihadist groups in Gaza in the West Bank.

• Pray for the thousands of Israelis who are collecting food and sending it to our families in the South as well as to our soldiers.

• I don't want to be selfish, but please pray that we are able to safely get home.

If you would like to help with the relief effort, please click below.

Thank you for standing with Israel! God sees!

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