On July 17, Israeli strikes on a church in Gaza killed three and injured several others. This attack is but one of many egregious actions taken by the Israeli military and government against Palestinians over the past two years. The bombing of a church stands out in particular, as many in the West were startled to discover that Christians live among the Palestinian people. Despite enduring centuries of persecution and oppression in both Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinian Christians remain largely forgotten by their spiritual brothers and sisters in the Western world.
The catalyst for Israel’s disproportionate retaliation was lit by Hamas, whose attacks on October 7, 2023, killed nearly 1,200 people and abducted approximately 250. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the horrifying nature of these attacks as moral justification for an extensive and explosive military response. Over the subsequent 21 months, Israel has carried out counterstrikes that an increasing number of voices—both internal and global—now describe as genocide.
The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 57,000. For context, prior to October 2023, many experts estimated Hamas’s total membership to be fewer than 40,000. On a single day this past Saturday, 116 Palestinians were killed, including an infant who died from starvation. The following day, another 73 were killed while attempting to receive food from an aid convoy. Population displacement. Starvation. Humiliation. Attacks on schools, churches, mosques, and apartment buildings—this is the current state of Gaza’s decimation.
Language used by Israeli officials has included dehumanizing phrases such as “human animals” and calls for “total annihilation” and “erasing the Gaza Strip from the face of the earth.” Meanwhile, the Israeli blockade has induced famine conditions across Gaza. According to the UN World Food Program, nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of the population goes days without food. In response, over 100 aid and human rights organizations signed a joint letter this week urging Israel to restore access to food, clean water, and medical supplies.
Although Gaza is the more visible humanitarian disaster, the West Bank remains shrouded in global neglect. Prior to Hamas’s attacks in 2023, violence against Palestinians there had escalated beyond levels seen in recent years. Now, with global attention fixated on Gaza, atrocities in the West Bank continue to worsen.
Since January, nearly 800 Israeli settler attacks have occurred in the West Bank. Palestinian deaths in the region now total over 1,000. Homes have been demolished and more than 30,000 Palestinians forcibly displaced.
If such atrocities were committed against nearly any other people group, global outrage would be swift. And though many are indeed outraged, Israel remains shielded and emboldened by the United States. Over the past fifty years, the U.S. has vetoed more than 50 resolutions against Israel at the UN Security Council. Furthermore, it annually supplies nearly $4 billion in military aid to Israel—a figure that surged by another $18–22 billion following the 2023 Hamas attacks.
Nations operate within a dysfunctional and counterproductive moral framework centered on interests and power. Thus, it is hardly surprising to witness the behavior of either Israel or the United States amid this increasingly undeniable genocide. What is astonishing, however, is the widespread indifference among Christians in the West. With alarming frequency, they dismiss the violence using misinformed history and a misguided theology that claims divine favor for Israel—even as innocent lives are extinguished. Worse still, some believe their own spiritual well-being and national prosperity hinge on supporting such injustice. Spouting the phrase, “God will bless those who bless Israel,” they prove not only their ignorance of scripture and context but also of the nature of God!
Prior to October 2023, an estimated 1,000 Palestinian Christians resided in Gaza. These believers endure persecution from both Hamas and the Israeli government. They are among the world’s most marginalized people—and yet they remain unseen by their fellow Christians around the globe.
The West Bank is home to an even larger Christian population. Before the Hamas attacks, roughly 50,000 Palestinian Christians lived in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, faithfully serving in churches throughout Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and other ancient cities. These individuals are not abstract figures—they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
When Christians in the West consider Palestinians, they often reduce them to a monolithic group—Muslims prone to violence. This harmful stereotype reflects a broader human tendency to justify genocide through “othering,” a tragic pattern repeated across generations despite solemn vows by the next generation that such horrors must never recur. By painting Palestinians as an indistinct and threatening “other,” American Christians adopt a dangerously human perspective that stands in stark opposition to the gospel of Christ.
The slaughter of fellow believers in Gaza and the West Bank should stir our prayers and compel us to use every bit of influence we have to resist these atrocities. But even if no Christians lived in Gaza or the West Bank, those who follow the God of scripture are still called to righteous opposition.
True Christian faith does not rest on nationality or ethnicity but on the unassailable ethics of a just and holy God. The New Testament reveals that earthly distinctions dissolve in the light of the Kingdom of God. The God who sent His Son to rescue humanity hears the cries of the weak, the forgotten, and the oppressed. So must we.
This is the very essence of the gospel of Christ: to illuminate a dark and corrupt world with divine compassion and justice.
“You are the light of the world.” —Matthew 5:17