Israel on lockdown

On Thursday morning, independent journalist Nicole Jansezian opened her eyes in her Jerusalem home to hear an unsettling, all-too-familiar sound.

“We woke up to sirens,” she said. “A hospital was hit. It’s a hospital in southern Israel, in Beersheba, that serves a million people. That’s pretty major.”

Dozens of people suffered minor injuries after an Iranian missile struck the Soroka Medical Center, according to hospital staff. Most of the patients were evacuated to a safe area before the missile hit, but the attack marked a significant escalation in the latest conflict between Israel and Iran. Iran reportedly equipped some of the missiles in Thursday’s attack with cluster bombs—warheads designed to disperse several smaller munitions to spread destruction over several miles.

“The rockets that came in today—there were, like, 20—they were even more powerful than previous ones,” Jansezian said.

The U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear sites on Saturday has heightened tensions in the region as Iran threatens retaliation. On Monday, Iran struck a U.S. air base in Qatar. The current conflict ignited on June 12 when Israel launched preemptive airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. Since then, many Israelis say they’ve endured repeated runs to bomb shelters, lockdowns and midnight air raid sirens. At the same time, parents say they’re struggling to answer tough questions from their children—questions about war, death, when they’ll be able to go back to school, and when things will finally be normal again.

Siren song

David Pileggi is an American citizen who moved to Israel with his wife in 1980 and worked as a journalist. For the past 17 years, he’s served as the rector of Christ Church Jerusalem, the oldest Protestant church in the Middle East.

He said over the past week, air raid sirens sometimes interrupted his sleep four times a night as he and his family—including his 2- and 4-year-old grandchildren—headed to the bomb shelter. Pileggi said it’s been particularly tough on the 4-year-old.

“He hears sirens, he feels the tension of adults around him,” Pileggi said. “People inadvertently talk around him about killing and dying and war. There’s jets flying over, and occasionally he’s seen a missile fly over. As a 4-year-old, his whole life is fairly disoriented.”

Pileggi said his grandson is normally a cute, happy-go-lucky little boy.

“Now he’s on edge,” Pileggi said. “And I would multiply his experience times—I don’t know—8 or 9 million. That’s the number of people who live in the state of Israel.”

“Why do people hate us?”

Sasson Pochtar, a 31-year-old reservist with the Israel Defense Forces, said he regularly sees missiles flying overhead. He said Israel’s defense system is designed to let residents know about an incoming attack 15 minutes before impact. Whether he decides to go to a bomb shelter depends on whether his city is directly threatened.

“If it’s not in my city, I can go to my balcony and shoot [video of] the interceptions,” Pochtar said. “It looks beautiful. You can see it because at least you’re in a safe place. But when the siren is in your area, of course you must go [to the bomb shelters] right away.”

Like Pileggi, Pochtar said he’s faced difficult questions from the little ones in his family, particularly his two daughters, ages 6 and 4.

“It’s always questions like, ‘Why is this happening? Why do people hate us?’” Pochtar said. “Many times we’re talking about really mature things like, ‘What will happen if I die? If you die? Or Mom dies?’”

Pochtar said he and his wife will often pretend it’s a game.

“If you show them fear, of course, they’ll be afraid as well,” he said.

“10 times worse”

As a journalist, Jansezian said she covered the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and the ensuing rocket attacks from terror groups, including Hamas, Lebanese-based Hezbollah, and the Yemen-based Houthi rebels. But she said Israel’s war with Iran is exponentially more serious because in this case, the missiles are powerful enough to strike from more than 1,000 miles away.

“The explosiveness of these missiles—when you hear them flying overhead and getting shot down or landing, the shock waves and the sound from the impact of these missiles is something I’ve never heard before,” she said. “And what I’ve seen in covering the destruction is 10 times worse than anything I’ve seen.”

Jansezian said a typical rocket in past attacks by Hamas might create a hole in a building and kill any occupants in its path.

“These [Iranian] missiles are bringing down entire buildings and killing multiple people at a time,” she said. “So I would say that this has to be one of the worst escalations I’ve seen, or the most dangerous.”

Ghost town

Since the conflict erupted on June 12, Jansezian said much of Israel had been on lockdown. She compared it to the lockdowns at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with gyms, malls, restaurants, and coffee shops shuttered.

“You can go out of your house, but there’s nothing to do except go grocery shopping or go to a pharmacy,” she said. “In the Old City [of Jerusalem] for instance … I was there Friday and it was like a ghost town.”

She said she hoped to dine at a restaurant owned by a family friend, but the friend couldn’t risk opening.

“They said anybody who opens will get a 5,000-sheckel fine,” she said, which is more than $1,000.

Home Front Command, the IDF division responsible for civil protection, eased some of the restrictions on Thursday, she said, but schools remained closed. Many school-age Israeli children are taking online classes, with no estimate on when they’ll be back in a physical classroom, Jansezian said.

Despite the difficulties in keeping children inside, Jansezian said Israelis must be careful when seeking out entertainment. She added that she wouldn’t let her child go to the park with friends until she was assured there was a bomb shelter nearby—and they all knew where it was.

“You can do things like that, but with extreme caution and always uncertainty,” she said.

“A powerful witness”

The isolation, lockdowns, and constant missile threats can cause tension among Israeli residents, but they can also create opportunities to spread the gospel, according to Pileggi.

Christ Church Jerusalem has a diverse congregation of individuals who sometimes wouldn’t get along outside the church’s doors, Pileggi said. It’s not uncommon at his church to see Messianic Jews and Arab Christians praying for one another or Palestinian Christians worshiping alongside IDF soldiers, he said. Members include Israeli settlers, as well as those who view Israeli settlements as incursions or occupations.

“I don’t want anyone to surrender to their differences, and I don’t want anyone to surrender their identity,” Pileggi said. “You know what makes the gospel a powerful witness, whether it’s in this region of the world or any other corner of the world? It’s when people with different interests and different politics and different identities actually can find ways to live together and love each other.”

In the past week, Pileggi said he and his staff looked for ways to minister to those struggling with the isolation caused by the lockdowns. When turnout for Sunday service was low, he said he started checking up on members through WhatsApp. His church distributed food to economically disadvantaged Palestinians and organized games and activities for Palestinian children with nothing to do during the lockdowns, Pileggi said.

“We celebrated communion today,” Pileggi said Wednesday. “We didn’t have a lot of people, just some of our staff and a few clever folks who talked their way past the police checkpoints. We celebrated communion as a way of restating our belief that the life and death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus defeats sin and defeats death and defeats the demonic. And you know, God ultimately will be victorious.”

Hope in Christ

Pochtar also credits his faith in Jesus with helping him endure the uncertainty. When he’s not on missions with the IDF, Pochtar serves as youth pastor at Beit Hallel Israel, a congregation in the Israeli port city of Ashdod.

“My life changed totally since Oct. 7, when I really realized that life is so short and I don’t want to spend any more time doing things that are just waste,” Pochtar said.

For Pochtar, that means spending more time evangelizing. He admits his role with the IDF might require him to engage in combat, but he said his faith helps him see the enemy in a different light.

“We do not hate our enemies,” he said. “We, of course, are not agreeing with what they do, but we do believe that there is hope in Christ. He is the only actual solution in this big conflict.”

“Bigger things”

Pochtar and Pileggi recognize that the recent Middle East conflict has prompted many Christians to focus on Israel. Pileggi cautions believers not to view the Jewish state in extremes, urging them to instead adopt a nuanced approach.

“I meet so many people who are convinced that the state of Israel was born in iniquity and nothing Israel can do is moral or ethical,” Pileggi said. “And then of course there are numerous Christians who just think that the state of Israel is an entity next to the heavenly throne, and due to its righteousness, its holiness, and its virtue, it walks 3 feet off the ground. These are the kind of Christians that support Israel no matter what Israel does.”

Pochtar recognized that some Christians are watching their newscasts with their Bibles in hand, with a focus on certain prophetic passages. He said regardless of how they see Israel’s role in end times events, he hoped his brothers and sisters in Christ would pray for its well-being and stand by the Jewish state.

“Some people are saying that the end is … you know,” Pochtar said. “Is Christ coming? Yes. I mean, He’s coming. I don’t know when and how fast, but definitely we’re moving towards bigger things.”