It’s the end of a lovely day. You’ve enjoyed a peaceful, pleasant summer evening and are settling into a deep sleep. You’re surrounded by your family and friends, and you find yourself counting your blessings, thanking God for the goodness He’s shown you.

But in the middle of the night, all those pleasant moments come crashing down. 

On Death’s Door

The screeching sound of an ear-splitting siren rings through the room. You frantically claw your way back toward consciousness, pulling your tired body out of bed as quickly as you can. Every moment is precious, and any hesitation could cost your life. You shout to your spouse and kids, pulling them to their weary feet with deathly urgency. You can’t waste a single second stopping to grab any household possessions on your way out of your home, knowing it could be obliterated within a minute. 

How many seconds has it been now since you heard the siren? 20? 25? You can’t afford to guess wrong. You nearly knock down your door trying to rush out of your home, heading toward the little igloo-like bunker across the street. Once inside you won’t have much room for air, let alone moving around and getting comfortable. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is surviving the next few minutes.

As you dash across the street, a bolt of light streaking across the sky catches your eye. Its movement is erratic and irregular, zooming in indistinguishable patterns but unmistakably drawing closer each second. It’s joined in the sky by other brilliant lights, which explode into what might look like sparkling fireworks in another setting but are agents of death in this one. That arbitrarily aimed light beam, the one that didn’t explode in the air but kept its course, could tear apart your home or your neighborhood as easily as it could tear you apart. 

In Safe Hands

So you burst through the heavy door of the bunker, waiting just long enough to collect your family—and as many other defenseless people trapped outside that can fit inside—before locking the door tightly behind you. If you’re lucky, you might have a few seconds to compose yourself before the moment your house is reduced to rubble and your life is forever changed. 

If you’re lucky, you might have a few seconds to compose yourself before the moment your house is reduced to rubble and your life is forever changed.

Booming noises of unparalleled ferocity surround you, while deadly shrapnel batters the thickly fortified walls that temporarily keep you confined. The children’s shrieks of terror—all of which are warranted—fill the shelter. Yet hearing their screams sounds like beautiful music, knowing there is still life in their lungs in this moment.

There are a few different ways this story can end. Sometimes it ends with the family stepping outside and finding their home still intact, their neighborhood unchanged, and their family returning to life as normal. Sometimes it ends with their home destroyed, their neighborhood leveled, and their family uprooted. In every instance, trauma and permanent mental scarring are not far behind the final call of the sirens.

An Inescapable Tragedy

This is the story of the Israelis, circa May 2021. And May 2019. And November 2018. And December 2017. And July–August 2014. And March 2012. And August 2011. And December 2008–January 2009. And February 2008. And these were only the instances where the rocket strikes were incessantly repeated, totaling dozens, hundreds, or thousands of strikes. The attacks never truly stop. There have been many individual instances of rocket fire in nearly every month of every year since Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2005; the attacks have just been spread out over a longer time period. They’ve led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, numbers that might undercut how catastrophic they are, considering how terrifying they are to the communities that live in constant fear of suffering the same fate every single day.

Many families aren’t quite so well equipped. They might not have a bomb shelter outside their home or a mamad, a safe room with reinforced concrete walls and steel doors, inside their homes. The mamad has become fairly common in Israeli apartments, yet approximately 60% remain without one, leaving tenants scrambling when given 15–90 seconds after the siren sounds to find some sort of shelter.

How to Save a Life

That’s where you come in. Demonstrating your support for these people who live under the threat of destruction every day brings comfort to these endangered Israelis and shows obedience to God’s call to bless the nation of Israel.

Dozens of lives can be saved in the inevitable attacks still to come because of your gracious, generous giving.

The Friends of Israel faithfully works to provide these bomb shelters for Israeli communities. Thanks to faithful donors, during the rocket attacks Hamas rained down on Israel in May we managed to provide six costly bomb shelters in Israel—praise the Lord! That means dozens of lives can be saved in the inevitable attacks still to come because of your gracious, generous giving. 

Supporting Israel isn’t a move that will win you a lot of approval in today’s world. Only a minority of people are strong enough to stand up for a persecuted nation that the world is quick to paint as the enemy. Many people you know might be appalled by your decision to stand with the nation of Israel in this time. Yet this moment of crisis is the perfect opportunity to fulfill God’s call to bless His chosen nation, Israel, by providing life-saving shelters in their most crucial hour. Ask Him for courage and wisdom in discerning how you might stand with and save the lives of our friends in Israel. And never forget that the evil plans of man can never overcome God’s protection of His people.

About the Author

Jesse King

Jesse is the managing editor of Israel My Glory magazine and a staff writer for The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.