Gaza (MNN) — After meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a 20-point, U.S.-backed peace proposal for ending the Israel-Hamas war.
In a press conference that afternoon, Netanyahu warned that if Hamas rejects the deal, or accepts it and then works against it, “Israel will finish the job by itself.”
The proposal would call for a “modest withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, said Netanyahu, and a return of all Hamas hostages within 72 hours of its signing. It would also establish a new, international body that Trump called “the Board of Peace.” This Board would be tasked with seeing Hamas fully disarmed and Gaza demilitarized.
Representative stock photo from Jerusalem, Israel courtesy of Tim Mossholder via Unsplash
The path ahead is complex. Fadi Sharaiha with the MENA Leadership Center says to remember that people’s lives and dreams and goals are involved here — not only the lives of the remaining hostages, but those at risk of being caught in a continuing cycle of violence.
“If you have a child who [is] 16 [and] he lost his family, what do you think this person will be? [A] peacemaker or a soldier, whether he is in Gaza or in Israel?” Sharaiha says.
He acknowledges the evil that has been done on both sides of the conflict, starting with Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Even if one day Hamas is disarmed, it’s important to recognize it is more than a band of like-minded people.
“Hamas is a doctrine. Hamas is a school of thought. It’s called ‘political Islam.’ Even in so many countries in the Arab world, Hamas is forbidden,” Sharaiha says. “Hamas was kicked out of Jordan because of their doctrine. So no, the Middle East [is] not all on the same level of how they look at Hamas.”
Over and above all, Sharaiha points Christians to remember the bigger picture: “God loves the people, God loves humankind, and God wants all to come to faith in Christ. So whenever it’s tough, we go back to the basics,” he says.
(Photo courtesy of MENA Leadership Center)
“In Genesis chapter one, where God created mankind in His own image, this really establishes that all people, regardless of gender, background, religion, bear God’s image and therefore have inherited dignity.”
Please pray
Keep asking God to bring the peace of Christ to people in the Gaza war zone. Pray for the government leaders who have a role in these peace conversations (1 Timothy 2:1-7).
Pray also for the MENA Leadership Center’s future courses on trauma healing and refugee ministry.
“We’re trying to prepare the church in the MENA to be ready for those people, and also to be ready to share the gospel in a way that [answers] the questions of the heart,” says Sharaiha.
Header photo is a stock image courtesy of Marek Studzinski via Unsplash.
