“Thus says the Lord:
‘Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents,
And have mercy on his dwelling places;
The city shall be built upon its own [d]mound,
And the palace shall remain according to its own plan.
Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving
And the voice of those who make merry;
I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish;
I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Their children also shall be as before,
And their congregation shall be established before Me;
And I will punish all who oppress them.'”
Jeremiah 30:18-20
Pray for the release of the hostages
After 491 days in Hamas captivity, three male hostages, Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi, and Or Levy, returned home as we had hoped and prayed for. The men looked gaunt and were unsteady on their feet after being held hostage by Hamas for 16 months. Their appearances were very different to their images that we have become accustomed to over the past year of campaigning for their release. As a shadow of their former selves, one could not help but draw comparisons with the images we have seen of Holocaust victims in concentration camps. Just as those images revealed the evil extent of the Nazis, the images we witnessed on Saturday once again reveal the evil of Hamas. Anyone believing the toxic false narrative of Hamas treating hostages well have no excuse whatsoever. Anyone who supports Hamas does so out of willful antisemitic hatred of Jews, and not because they have been dupped by Hamas’s woeful propaganda.
Please continue to pray for these three men and for their families. Eli Sharabi and Or Levy came home to a heartbreaking new reality — Sharabi’s wife and two teenage daughters were murdered on October 7 by Hamas, and Levy’s wife was also killed that day.
Pray for the release of ALL the hostages. On Monday, Hamas announced on its Telegram account that it is cancelling the release of hostages on 15th February until further notice due to a fabricated claim that Israel had violated the ceasefire. It is more likely that they began to realise that the backlash to the appearance of the three latest hostages was not working in Hamas’s favour, despite their best theatrical efforts to parade the hostages, issue certificates and tell the world that they have treated the hostages well. Repeatedly, Hamas has missed deadlines to submit names of hostages slated to be released; Hamas has subjugated hostages to terrifying and humiliating public ‘rallies,’ yet it now accuses Israel. Ultimately, terrorists will behave like terrorists, and Hamas continually shows there can be no place for the terror group in Gaza’s future.
Thankfully, it appears that Hamas has backtracked after President Trump gave Hamas an ultimatum to either release all the hostages or face the consequences. It is now understood that Saturday will see the original plan of three hostages being released by Hamas. We must pray that this goes ahead successfully, but we must also pray that Hamas will release ALL the hostages.
Pray for the family of Shlomo Mantzur, the oldest hostage still in Gaza, who was declared deceased by Israeli authorities on Tuesday, who said that Hamas had killed Shlomo on October 7, 2023. Yet Hamas continues to hold Shlomo’s family hostage, putting his family through trauma and torture. This is further evidence of the barbarity of Hamas and its complete disregard for human life. They see every Israeli as simply a bargaining chip to cling on to power so they can launch more murderous terror.
More information about how the female hostages were treated is gradually being revealed. In an interview aired on Wednesday, the mother of released hostage Daniella Gilboa detailed how Hamas forced her daughter to fake her death for propaganda it filmed while she was in captivity, leading to rumours she had been killed. In a separate interview, the mother of one of the female surveillance soldiers recently freed from Gaza after over 15 months in captivity, told of how the women hostages were forced by Hamas to watch videos of male hostages being tortured.
This antisemitic evil must be called out. Christians must be a voice of support for Israel and for the Jewish people everywhere. Israel has been let down by organisations like UNRWA and the Red Cross. Did you see the handshake between the Hamas terrorist and Red Cross Staff member? The message of dominance from the Hamas terrorists summarises clearly the apparent lack of authority that UN institutions, Red Cross, and other Western entities pose, and the control and fear that Hamas has over these organisations. But is the tide turning? President Trump’s steps regarding UNRWA, UNHRC, ICC and ICJ, among others, is demonstrating a major shift in the United States’ policy in the Middle East, giving his full support to Israel, putting Hamas in a corner, and even pushing other Arab leaders to have to take some responsibility in resolving the matter of Gaza and displaced Palestinians.
We must bring all of these things in prayer to the Lord, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, pray for Israel’s victory, and declare His blessing upon His people.
