This week we invite you to join with us in praying for victims of terrorism – innocent individuals targeted this week in separate attacks. But we also pray with thanksgiving for outcomes that are important to retell.
Pray for an Israeli family who miraculously survived a Palestinian shooting attack. The mother and father and their two young children were driving in the car from holiday in northern Israel when a Hamas terrorist started driving towards them, got out and firing at the car with an assault rifle. The mother, a 31-year-old Israeli woman, was injured on her face from glass as the bullets penetrated the windscreen. The two children aged 6 and 9, and the father who was driving were uninjured in the attack. Praise the Lord for their preservation! Pray for their comfort and healing as they come to terms with the ordeal of this attack. Hamas said that the attack was a “response to the crimes of the occupation against our people and the holy sites.” It is unbelievable that Palestinian terrorists targeted an innocent family with young children in response to what some have interpreted to be attributed to the visit of 2,000 Jews, including an Israeli politician, to the Temple Mount on the annual Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, Jews worldwide mourn the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem which were destroyed on the 9th of Av. This visit to the Temple Mount received an international backlash, including from the UK from US, but no condemnation has been made of the attack on the young Jewish family travelling in their car.
Pray for six Israelis, including a 14-year-old boy, wounded when a Palestinian man opened fire inside a shopping mall east of Jerusalem. Two of the victims are in a serious condition. The terrorist was forced to flee when an Israeli father, who was with his little girl, grabbed a seat and chased the attacked out of the mall. The terrorist was then shot dead by an off-duty police officer. Praise the Lord that there were no further casualties, and that those involved in stopping the attack will be honoured for their bravery. Pray for all those involved, including those who witnessed the attack and those who are recovering in hospital.
Finally, we pray with thankfulness that a plot to attack Jews in Mumbai was foiled this week. Two men with links to Pakistani jihad groups were arrested in possession of explosives and detailed plans to attack the Chabad House, a Jewish community centre, in Mumbai. Praise the Lord that the Indian intelligence services, aided by Israeli intelligence services, were successful in preventing the imminent attack. The same Chabad House was the target of a hostage situation during the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and seven Jewish people were murdered there. We must pray for the Jewish community that lives in Mumbai today. Not only do they live with the memory of the attack 15 years ago, but the community needs our prayers for its protection today.
The incidents this week are another reminder of the deep antisemitic hate towards the Jewish people and emphasises to us the importance of us praying for the safety of the Jewish people in Israel and around the world. Thank you that we can depend on your partnership in praying continually for Israel and the Jewish people.
