of Jesus, killing at least two children, while Israel’s air force pounded a Christian neighborhood in Beirut and a Christian town, several sources said.
Nazareth, in northern Israel, is revered as the Galilee town where Jesus was raised and it is filled with churches. Television footage showed smoke billowing from a damaged building after the attack, which also injured at least two people, news reports said. It was not immediately clear if any of the Biblical sites were damaged in the town, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Lebanese border.
The attack was the latest in a series of rockets on Israel which killed at least three people Wednesday, July 19. Evangelicals living there were expressing concern over the impact of the conflict on especially children in the Jewish state.
"The Galilee and Haifa areas have sustained over 800 rockets attacks from Lebanon over the past week, and over a half million residents have been forced to live in bomb shelters," said Timothy King, Financial Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) which supports Israel and its right to exist.
"A number of Israeli organizations have approached the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem to help bring children stuck in bomb shelters in the North to safer alternative housing in the center of the country and provide them with summer recreational activities," he told BosNewsLife.
CHILDREN SUFFERING
He said children were “very frightened” as they are "cooped up" in a small shelter for days on end while the sound of explosions continued outside. He said his group has been starting to collect $50,000 for the purpose of transporting children to safer locations.
Across the border in Lebanon however, Christians also expressed concern over Israeli bombardments on Beirut and other areas which on Wednesday, July 19, reportedly killed at least 30 people .
For the first time, Israeli aircraft hit Ashrafiya, a Christian residential area in Beirut, once controlled by pro-Israeli Christian Maronite militias during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war. The helicopter attack destroyed a lorry but caused no casualties.
In addition Hadath, a mainly Christian town just east of Beirut, was hit local television said, while missiles were also reported in Chuweifat – a coastal town where several factories are located, just south of the capital, near the airport. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
CHRISTIANS FEARFUL
Visibly shaken Maroun Lahoud reportedly said he was leaving Beirut with his three children following the Israeli air strike on his Christian neighborhood. "The Israelis are firing at everybody, not just on Hezbollah. They are hitting buildings, trucks, an entire people," Reuters news agency quoted Lahoud as saying, standing in front of his home with his hands on his head.
It came as aid organizations active in Lebanon appealed for help, saying Lebanese Christians form a substantial proportion of the refugees. "As an estimated hundred thousand Lebanese flee the shelling, Christians form a substantial proportion of the refugees," said UK-based advocacy group Barnabas Fund, which is cooperating with Lebanese churches and organizations.
"Some have fled to the Lebanese mountains, while tens of thousands are crossing into Syria," Barnabas Fund told BosNewsLife in a statement. "Given the suddenness of the crisis, there has been no time to make preparation for these large-scale humanitarian needs. Many Christians are amongst the innocent victims of the current violence which flared up so unexpectedly in Lebanon in the past week."
URGEND NEEDS
Caught in a conflict not of their making, “they are in urgent need of food, shelter and medical care," the group added. Christian aid workers in Syria, where most refugees arrive, said there was an urgent need for milk and food for babies and children.
In published remarks, Dr J. Haddad, a Syrian doctor and Christian ministry leader, said
"Under-nourishment, weakness and illnesses as well as wounds and infection" have already led to a need for "hospitalization" while others "need on-the-spot medical help."
Tents or other shelter are needed too, although this is less vital than it would be in winter, he said.
The violence has added to the difficulties for Christians who stay behind, explained Nabil Costa, an official of the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development and of the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary.
"As well as the needs of the displaced, there are also many needy Christians who were in low-paid jobs, hired out and paid daily. They now have no work and cannot afford to buy food," he said in a statement distributed by Barnabas Fund.
BIBLICAL TEACHING
"The distinctive calling of Barnabas Fund has always been to care for Christians, in accordance with the Bible’s teaching: ‘As you have opportunity, do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers’," stressed Barnabas Fund’s International Director, Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, citing Galatians 6:10.
He told BosNewsLife he had urged "fellow believers" around the world in e-mail messages “to pray for our Christian family in Lebanon and to send help as they are able." Aid workers are also facing difficulties. On Tuesday, July 18, the Seventh-day Adventist church in the Middle East (MEU), which is running several schools, churches and other institutions in Lebanon and the region, said it had postponed its "much anticipated" relocation of is headquarters to Beirut because of the air strikes.
Earlier on Wednesday, July 19, four Palestinian gunmen were killed after Israeli tanks moved into a refugee camp in central Gaza, the latest incursion in Israel’s three-week military push in the territory to free a kidnapped soldier and end rocket attacks from there, news reports said.
As evening fell over the troubled region, reports said that in the last week of fighting nearly 300 people died in Lebanon and at least 25 Israelis, mostly civilians. (With reports from Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, BosNewsLife News Center and BosNewsLife Research. Stay with BosNewsLife for continues coverage on the crisis in the Middle East).
