Before Israel launched its attack on Hamas terrorists in response to their barbaric, murderous acts, I put out a call to pray for the people of Gaza, knowing that many innocent civilians would lose their lives. Since then, I have been in meetings with other Christians where we prayed for the protection of Gazan civilians and for the IDF to use wisdom and restraint in their rightful attempts to eradicate Hamas.

Many other Christian leaders I know, all of them pro-Israel, have expressed similar sentiments, and when I preached on October 8th on sharing God’s pain, I mentioned His pain for the suffering Palestinians as well.

As followers of Jesus, we should care about all those who are suffering right now, regardless of whether they are Muslim or Jewish or Christian, Palestinian or Israeli or other.

At the same time, we must categorically rebuke those who make false accusations against Israel, repeating standard antisemitic tropes and peddling libelous media reports, especially when they do so in the name of Jesus.