American Christians are helping fund thousands of mobile bomb shelters for Israelis as Hamas continues to fire thousands of missiles on the Holy Land.
The Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a nonprofit organization founded in 1983 to bridge the gap between Christians and Jews, placed 13 mobile bomb shelters in the Israel city of Ashkelon, a coastal southern Israel city that was heavily bombarded by Hamas missile fire last Wednesday.
The Fellowship also gave security staff in Ashkelon 25 protective vests.
To date, The Fellowship has placed nearly 3,000 bomb shelters in Israel.
Yael Eckstein, who leads the Fellowship as its CEO, told The Christian Post that the support of American Christians has helped to "truly provide security and safety from these rocket attacks to the people of Israel."
"It's mostly on behalf of Christians in America who want to provide that shelter and protection just as the Bible says to be the watchmen on the walls [of Jerusalem]," she said.
Eckstein noted that factories can produce a mobile bomb shelter in six days and during times of conflict, they can be purchased and placed in "key, strategic, vulnerable locations [under rocket fire]."
She explained how it's a challenge to find a balance of trusting in God and not being afraid despite knowing that people have been killed in war and terror in Israel.
"What's really unique and unprecedented about this situation now is that we're not even technically in a situation of war and [there have] been more rockets over Tel Aviv, Jerusalem than ever before in the history of Israel," Eckstein stated.
"And so, I guess what makes this unique is just the range that Hamas terrorists are able to [reach]," she added. "The amount of people who are in their bomb shelters who have never [had] to get in their bomb shelters before and the ongoing barrages that are targeting civilians and not specifically military or IDF bases."
For the past 15 years, The Fellowship has operated on the Gaza Strip to prepare for emergencies by building bomb shelters, providing secure trauma centers and protective vests.
But according to Eckstein, the recent attacks have affected Israeli civilians more than ever before. Nevertheless, she felt encouraged by the support of millions of Christians for Israel, despite misleading reporting from the mainstream media.
"And for Christians, obviously, who stand for life, who stand against killing, who have these very, very strong values of freedom, to see how they recognize there's one side defending themselves and one side waging war and targeting civilians, for me is just the most encouraging thing," she said.
Related:
What You Need to Know about the Israel-Palestine Conflict
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Amir Levy/Stringer
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
