10/3/2024 Middle East (International Christian Concern) — As the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel approaches, Christians across the Middle East find themselves caught in a relentless cycle of conflict. The deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust ignited a fierce wave of aggression and heightened tensions between Islamic militant groups and the Israeli Defense Forces.
In Beirut, Christians are reeling from deadly attacks fired by Israel in response to an expected strike from Iran. Lebanon has been caught between Israel and Islamic militant groups for months. In September, Israeli airstrikes left a predominantly Christian village devastated and cut off from the world. Their fears reflect those shared by Christians throughout the region.
“We’re surrounded by four Shia villages that Israel bombs daily,” locals shared. “One of them, Kfar Milke, is almost completely destroyed. Here, we take care of each other; we’re a community. We all support each other. I make sure everything is okay and gather essential supplies. I cross Hezbollah-held areas, and I try not to think about the drones watching us and striking without warning.”
Remarkably, Israel has kept this village safe from direct hits. Due to their status as a port in a storm, the Christians have chosen to open their village to neighboring Muslims looking for safety. Families are sheltering in the local parish, benefactors of the love of Christ in a time of uncertainty.
“We came here because it’s a Christian village, and we knew they’d take us in,” one refugee explained.
Believers in the Middle East are well-practiced in acting like Christ in the face of persecution. As the Lausanne Conference concludes in Seoul, reports on the church’s status in the Middle East confirm this.
“Their witness goes beyond direct evangelizing,” one person said. “This last decade witnessed the martyrdom of Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya who refused to renounce their faith under the Islamic State group (ISIS). And when the Muslim Brotherhood regime was overthrown in Egypt, the church responded in love and forgiveness as it stood for the truth. It is good to be bold, yet we must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”
International Christian Concern (ICC) is active in the Middle East, empowering these incredibly strong believers to continue sharing the love of Christ as tensions mount.
“Peace is a choice to be made,” Anat Sultan-Dadon, Consul General of Israel to the Southeastern United States, recently shared. “There is always hope. What we need to see is courageous leadership that is choosing a better future for their people rather than choosing destruction; rather than choosing hate.”
The church knows that there is always hope. Even in the darkness, the hope of Christ remains a solid rock for believers in the Middle East.
To read more news stories, visit the ICC Newsroom. For interviews, please email press@persecution.org.
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