21st April 2026

Yesterday a photograph was published showing an Israeli soldier desecrating a statue of Jesus with a sledgehammer in in Debl, a Christian village in south Lebanon. In July of last year, Israel struck the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three people. Israel also struck the compound of a Greek Orthodox church, the Church of St. Porphyrius, in Gaza City, killing a dozen people and destroying the facility where hundreds of Christians were sheltering. On the West Bank, Israeli settlers are making life unbearable for Palestinian Christians. Recent reports indicate that settlers, who receive the backing of the Israeli government, have surrounded the ancient Christian community of Taybeh with illegal settlements and are harassing the people who live there.  A report published by the Rossing Centre recently documents some of the harassment and violence directed at Christian communities in Israel and East Jerusalem. It documents several cases involving physical attacks, with clergy, monks, friars, and nuns, all targeted because of their “distinctive garments and visible Christian symbols”. It also documents 59 attacks on church property in 2025, including graffiti, vandalism of religious statues, arson, garbage dumping and spitting at holy places. 

You can find the Rossing Centre Report here.

Loving God, we pray for our brothers and sisters living in Israel and Palestine. Comfort with Your grace, all experiencing the hatred and intolerance of others, and give them the grace and strength to face all that is perpetrated against them. We pray for their protection and for their strength of faith.  May they hold fast to Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, through all the trials and tribulations they experience. Let all who are suffering, know that you are with them in the struggles they are going through. We ask that their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs will be met.  May the community of faith will grow closer together and grow in their number as the Gospel is proclaimed and your love shared. In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen.

Years of compounded crises and recurrent hostilities have resulted in communities across Lebanon struggling to access basic services. Currently, hostilities are damaging critical water infrastructure with serious consequences for civilians.  In response, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rapidly scaled up its Water and Habitat activities to help ensure that civilians continue to access safe water and functioning medical care in affected areas.  The ICRC supported the continuity of water and sanitation services across Lebanon.  Repairs were carried out and boreholes were equipped in three areas in the Bekaa region (Niha, Deir Al Ahmar) and Hermel serving 24,000 people. Additional repairs addressed conflict-related damage to water networks in two villages (Britel and Nabi Shit) in the Bekaa reserving 45,000 people. In parallel, repairs were conducted on main water distribution lines serving 13 collective shelters hosting about 2,000 displaced persons, as well as surrounding host communities in Jezzine district. Repairs to conflict-related damage to water networks in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon will also serve 18,000 people. These interventions help stabilize access to essential services in locations where infrastructure had been damaged or overstretched.  

You can find out more about this work here.

It is a thing most wonderful,

Almost too wonderful to be,

That God’s own Son should come from Heav’n,

And die to save a child like me.

And yet I know that it is true;

He chose a poor and humble lot,

And wept, and toiled, and mourned, and died,

For love of those who loved Him not.

I cannot tell how He could love

A child so weak and full of sin;

His love must be most wonderful,

If He could die my love to win.

It is most wonderful to know

His love for me so free and sure;

But ’tis more wonderful to see

My love for Him so faint and poor.

And yet I want to love you, Lord;

Oh, light the flame within my heart,

And I will love you more and more,

Until I see you as you art.

 William Walsham How 1823-97