TEL AVIV, Israel (BP) — Avi Mizrachi, a Messianic believer and founding pastor of Adonai Roi Congregation in Tel Aviv, finds it difficult to commemorate the Oct. 7 second anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel.

“It’s a sad day, because we remember that so many people have been killed, so many people have been slaughtered,” Mizrachi said. “People are crying.

“Every Israeli, believer or not believer, we want the war to end. We are tired. For two years, we are tired.”

When Mizrachi spoke with Baptist Press on Oct. 3, he planned to gather with other Messianic Jews and Christian Arabs in a solemn assembly in Tel Aviv on Oct. 14, the eighth day of Sukkot, praying for Israel’s salvation and the release of the remaining 48 hostages, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

“All we can do is pray and trust God,” Mizrachi said, “and have hope in the Messiah Jesus.”

Palestinian Pastor Hannah Massad, founder of Christian Mission to Gaza and former pastor of Gaza Baptist Church in Gaza City, as well as Ric Worshill, executive director of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship, both cite the same hope.

But while all three men pray for peace, Mizrachi and Worshill believe Netanyahu otherwise has no choice but to completely destroy Hamas if the terrorists don’t surrender.

“Most of the Messianic believers that I know would like (Israeli Prime Minister) Benjamin Netanyahu to go in and clean it up and get it over with,” Worshill said. “I think that the Trump administration is correct in telling Netanyahu to finish it, get it over with, do whatever you’ve got to do. (Hamas) has been given all the ultimatums and all the requests for peace, and they won’t stop.

“And it’s sad because the Israelites don’t want anyone killed. They value life,” Worshill said. “On the other hand, Hamas doesn’t value life.”

Leaders from several nations including the U.S., Israel, Palestine, Qatar and Egypt are convening today (Oct. 6) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, known as the City of Peace, for negotiations surrounding a proposed 20-point peace agreement that would free all remaining hostages at once.

Netanyahu has already approved the plan that Hamas partly accepted with conditions ahead of peace talks, the latest of several efforts to end the war.

Netanyahu, accused of genocide against Gaza by an official three-member United Nations commission, has made his intentions clear.

“To the remaining Hamas leaders, and to the jailers of our hostages,” Netanyahu proclaimed in his September address to the U.N. that he said was broadcast on cell phones in Gaza, “I now say, lay down your arms. Let my people go. Free the hostages. … If you do, you will live. If you don’t, Israel will hunt you down. … If Hamas agrees to our demands, the war could end right now.”

Massad, whose ministry distributes food and water to civilians remaining in Gaza, believes any peace agreement must recognize both Israel and Palestine.

“As a Christian, I know there is no real peace without the Prince of Peace,” Massad told Baptist Press ahead of today’s talks. “Yet, it seems that the only current solution is full security for Israel, alongside a home for the Palestinians, living side by side. Otherwise, the cycle of violence will continue.”

He laments Hamas’ 2023 attack on Israel, described as the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust.

“Oct. 7 should never have happened, and there is no justification for it in any way. Yet, this conflict has been going on for a long time,” Massad said, “and it shows us the terrible consequences of leaving a problem unresolved for years.”

Antisemitism has increased globally, with a deadly Yom Kippur attack on a synagogue in Manchester, England, among the latest evidence. There, two were killed and three hospitalized when an attacker tried to ram his car into worshipers outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation and attacked many with a knife. One of the dead and one of the injured appeared to have been accidentally shot by police as they responded to the attack and killed the suspect, the Associated Press reported Oct. 3.

Mizrachi believes the battle is between good and evil.

“We’re dealing with evil jihadists like ISIS, like al-Qaida, like Hamas, like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah. They have one goal — to kill all the infidels,” Mizrachi said. “Their goal in life is to kill as many Jews as possible.”

Mizrachi quotes Ephesians 6:12, that the battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.

“It’s a spiritual war,” Mizrachi said. “It’s a religious war.”

He and Worshill reject the U.N. accusation of genocide against Netanyahu.

“What genocide?” Mizrachi asks. “The genocide that we know is what (Hamas) did two years ago, killing innocent people, 1,200 innocent people, killing them, raping women, taking babies and burning them in the ovens. I mean, this is horrible. That’s what they did. 

“I’m not saying everything the prime minister does is righteous. He’s not a believer. But we pray for the prime minister,” Mizrachi said. “Even when he makes mistakes, we pray for him. … But when you’re faced with a gun at your head, you have to fight. You have no choice.”

Massad encourages Christians to remember and follow Scripture.

“I am deeply concerned about my brothers and sisters in the churches in the West,” Massad told Baptist Press. “Sometimes, we are influenced more by social media or major news broadcasts than by the teachings of the gospel, the heart of Jesus’ message. I fear we have lost our compass and forgotten what the gospel is truly about.”

Despite Trump’s call for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, fighting continues in Gaza, where the Hamas-run Health Ministry puts the death toll at 66,000, including civilians and Hamas.

“The situation in Gaza is beyond words. For almost two years now, life has been extremely difficult. Many civilians — by the thousands — have been killed,” Massad said, citing UNICEF numbers from May that more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured since October 2023. “Even for the Christian community in Gaza, there isn’t enough food. The remaining population in Gaza City … struggles to get enough food and clean drinking water.”

The U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in its Sept. 16 report that Israel committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, trying to destroy the Palestinians and working to prevent births are among the claims.

Mizrachi cries for the hostages.

“The ones who are starving are the hostages where they don’t give them any food,” he said, citing the testimonies of released hostages. “They said they would get like one pita bread, one small pita bread for three days and one small bottle of water for a whole week. Of course, they lost half of their weight because they’re starving. (Hamas) is torturing them. They haven’t seen the sunlight for almost two years.

“They are the ones who are starving.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)