On October 7, 2023 the world was shocked at the barbaric Islamic terrorist invasion from Gaza into Jewish homes in Israel. There are many videos of women being dragged by their hair by Islamists and brutalized, public gang rape, kidnapped children being thrown into trucks with threats to kill them, and of civilians being slaughtered with bloody footage filmed on their own stolen phones and sent to their families. Entire families along with young children were butchered by the Hamas terrorists, shot and stabbed. Over 5,000 rockets were fired by Hamas into Jewish neighborhoods, no military targets were near.

Videos were posted of Jewish women being raped by the Muslim terrorists. Over 1,400 Israeli civilians have been murdered, almost 40 Jewish children in Kfar Aza killed by having their bodies cut to pieces by machine gun fire, stabbing or being burned alive. Yes, Children! At least 27 American tourists murdered, 17 British tourists, with others missing. Over 130 people kidnapped, many are children, brutalized and dragged into Gaza and held as human hostages. We have reports of three Jewish believers in Jesus killed in the initial terror. Any sane person would condemn this evil, and many Christian leaders including Franklin Graham and others have.  Many world governments have spoken out against this terrorist mania. Yet some are still misled by propaganda, doctored photos from the Syrian war and lies issued by terrorists. Let's be factual and clear: Long before the State of Israel existed, both Christians and Jews were targets of Islamic extremist terrorism. Israel simply existing as the only Jewish homeland on the planet is not the cause.

The origin of this violence comes from an extremist view of Islamic teaching and has resulted in attacks against Christians and Jews that are well documented from the 8th century onward. Ancient Jewish communities around the Middle East experienced waves of violent terrorism over 100 years ago simply because they were Jews. This shows that Israel simply existing is not the cause of the atrocities.

The goal of Hamas is the full destruction of Israel, with massive amounts of Jewish dead, replacing it with an extremist Islamic Caliphate just like Isis wanted for Iraq. This is the essence of what the terror group Isis tried to do, what Hitler tried to do. Israel fully withdrew from Gaza in 2005, handing it over to the 'Palestinian Authority'. However the Hamas terrorists violently overthrew the 'Palestinian Authority', and instituted an extreme form of rule. The sad plight of many innocent Arab citizens in Gaza is due to their being held captive by the Hamas dictatorship, and any protest by peaceful Arabs results in torture or execution by Hamas. Christians across the Middle East have been persecuted by these extremist Muslim regimes.

If you still think Israel is to blame, you have been fully misled by lies. In the last 3 days, large rallies were held by Hamas supporters held in New York, London and many major cities with cries of "all jews to the ovens", and "hitler was right". This is idiotic, racist, fully demonic hatred, willing to send children to gas chambers as Hitler did. It exposes the true mindset of the Hamas terrorists. Israel is the only country in the world which fends off lies while its children are slaughtered. Not expecting Israel to respond to stop Hamas is like not expecting America to respond to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Hamas has been terrorizing Israel for over 20 years, they must be stopped. It is horrific that they use their own civilians as human shields as Israel hits their rocket launchers.

We long for a situation of calm returning to Gaza, where Arab people have the opportunity to hear about Jesus the Savior. Before Hamas, Bible Christians were able to meet and pass on their faith. Since Hamas took over, Christians have been persecuted and have left in large numbers. Certainly, there are some residents of Gaza who support the terrorists, and Hamas has previously held captured Israelis for YEARS. That is why Israel feels it must do a ground invasion to rescue those hostages and eliminate the bunkers full of rockets. If Hamas is eliminated, there will eventually be opportunity for people to hear the gospel. Very difficult, uncertain days are ahead, with deaths on both sides, but  PRAY that those in Gaza who want to be free of Hamas will see that day.

At the same time, we long to see many of our own Jewish people in Israel come to saving faith in Messiah Jesus. The community of Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel numbers approximately 20,000. In addition, there are approximately another 20,000 evangelical believers from non-Jewish backgrounds, a mix of diplomats, foreign workers, expatriates and Arab evangelicals. At any one time there are approximately 300 young believers in Messiah who are full-time in the Israeli Defense Forces, and after this horrible terrorist attack, another 600 or so were called up from reserves for active service. I personally know of at least four of my previous students from the teen class at the summer Discipleship School for Jewish believers who are from Israel and are currently being called up for active military service, with one of them in a special elite forces unit. PLEASE PRAY that they might have an influence on the others in their units, in past years we have heard many such stories.

As believers in Messiah Jesus, we need to stand for facts and not be swayed by one-sided propaganda by Islamist extremists who have no interest in truth. As believers, we know Who wins in the end, but now we must stand for facts and pray that the Islamic forces, which are spreading terror, will be held back by God and that many people of all backgrounds would come to saving faith in Messiah as a result of seeing the end draw near. MB.

The images below will provide evidence of what we've said.

Mottel Baleston is the Director of the
Messengers Messianic Jewish Fellowship of New Jersey
Box 274,  Ledgewood, NJ 07852