Week of July 8, 2025

Israeli authorities have announced that satellite imagery was crucial to Israel’s preparation for the pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. In the months leading up to the war with Iran, Israeli satellites took tens of millions of photos of Iran—mostly of the capital, Tehran, and western Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran is about 1.6 million kilometers (or about 994,194 square miles) large. In March 2023, Israel launched a new satellite, called the Ofek 13, which gathered surveillance both day and night. The high-quality satellite images helped Israeli leaders assess immediate damage from the Israeli Air Force strikes on specific targets and decide what to do next in real time.

Praise God for this strategic advancement that helped the Israeli Air Force find and assess its targets and war objectives.

Both Israel and Hamas have given a positive response to the current ceasefire agreement presented by US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and mediated by Qatar and Egypt. Each side has added some qualifications and additional demands that will be discussed in Doha this week. The current proposal outlines a sixty-day truce with a phased hostage-prisoner exchange, gradual Israeli withdrawal, and increased humanitarian aid. During the first sixty days, ten living hostages and eighteen bodies will be released with opportunities to extend the ceasefire and release of hostages after sixty days. There are currently twenty living hostages—two in critical condition—and twenty-eight deceased hostages.

The Hostages Families Forum released a statement warning against a selective release of captives similar to “Schindler’s list” during the Holocaust, as it would extend the agony of the hostages and their loved ones. The statement requested a comprehensive agreement securing the return of all captives, calling it “the moral, Zionist act.”

Please pray for the release of all the hostages from Hamas. Pray for the comfort of the families and for relief from the agony of waiting hundreds of days for their loved ones.

During Operation Rising Lion (the twelve-day war with Iran), residents quickly realized how critical having a fortified safe room is. There were quite a few direct hits from ballistic missiles from Iran, causing catastrophic damage to the impact site as well as a wide radius of sound blast damage. All the twenty-eight people who died in Israel during this conflict were not in a fortified safe room.

As a result, Israelis are showing an increased interest in building private protected rooms as an addition to their homes or apartments. Also, many older apartments are being refurbished and modernized with fortified safe rooms. Since 1993, new apartments are required by law to have safe rooms adapted into the architectural plans. An estimated 56 percent of homes across Israel do not have a personal safe room, amounting to 1.67 million homes. Most older buildings, with lower rent or selling value, do not have a safe room. Safe rooms are expected in newer cities and neighborhoods. Each safe room costs around 200,000 shekels ($59,000). Currently, 70–80 percent of Israelis have access to public shelters—usually a school, public building or synagogue.

Please pray for safe, accessible personal or public shelters available to every Israeli.

Recently, our team in Jerusalem decided to pack cloth bags full of fun summer activities for children to do at home, now that school is over. The team put together over 300 bags and distributed it to children from mostly not-yet-believing families from a variety of cities: Modi’in, Jerusalem, the Tel Aviv area, Ashkelon, and Beer Sheva. Most of the homes of these children were either damaged or destroyed by the recent Iranian ballistic missile attacks. Many families were still living in hotels or with extended family members.

We were thrilled to give these children coloring books, a set of markers and colored pencils, an engraving kit, soft clay in many shades, and drawing kits. The gift bags included two books: one is based on the Psalms and teaches children how to cope with fear, while the second book serves as an educational resource on survival during wartime. The second book features quizzes, crosswords, and coloring activities based on the Old and New Testaments, along with relevant Bible verses. Both books are very practical, especially at this time! We want to stay in touch with each family, so each bag also included a lovely magnet featuring a Bible verse and a QR code that links to our Facebook page.

Please pray for these dear children to feel loved and comforted as the summer days are upon us. Pray for their parents to navigate difficult housing decisions and tasks while focusing on their children’s emotional well-being.

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