The escalation of violence in Gaza and Southern Israel this week has left parents on both sides of the conflict fearing for the safety and future of their children. Please pray for these families and for leaders who share a vision for a beautiful future for all children in the land.

Our partner in Gaza City shared this reflection and prayer with us:

We implore all of you to pray for us and for our city, which continues to suffer under the grip of war, closures, suffocation, and marginalization.

We are living in Gaza these days challenging circumstances under the mercy of war, alongside our young children who mean everything to us in this ever-changing and worrisome situation. Every time we see them smile, we gather strength to confront our anxiety, fears, and the challenges that arise with each instance we are forced to live under the grip of killing and destruction.

We strive hard to provide them with safety and protection, and to alleviate the effects of the ongoing conflict upon them. We are unsure if we succeed in doing so every time, but we try with all our strength and love for them.

We acknowledge that their rights to childhood, peace, and stability should be safeguarded, but we lack any military or capital power to protect them. All we have is to tell them that we love them above all else, and that our Lord Jesus Christ and His mother are with us in these difficult and uncertain moments whose outcome we do not know.

With everything we witness around us and experience in terms of death and the demolition of homes and dreams, we believe that there will come a day when our children can live in a world free from fear and destruction, where they have the right to happiness and security like any child in the world.

In each round of war, we encounter new kinds of fear that internally disrupt us, leaving cracks that do not heal over time but are excavated with each round.

We constantly think about all the children, fathers, and mothers who suffer under the relentless bombing, terror, and continuous threat. How can we act if we were in their place?

Oh God, even the thought itself is heart-wrenching.

These experiences are terrifying and leave us bewildered, confused, with nothing but the attempt to escape from thinking, despite the harsh reality.

We implore all of you to pray for us and for our city, which continues to suffer under the grip of war, closures, suffocation, and marginalization.

Always remember that we love life and have aspirations for a beautiful future.