On October 7, 2023, Hamas, the PFLP, and the DFLP brutally attacked civilians in Israeli territory during Sukkoth.

They fired 3,000 rockets and attacked civilians, including a music festival. There were 1,200 deaths, including 30 children. They took 250 hostages, including 38 children. Hamas cited the Israeli occupation and the blockade of Gaza as the cause for the attack, but Hamas is a terrorist organization that has long worked for the end of Israel.

We unequivocally condemn these brutal attacks, the firing of rockets, and also Hamas’ torturing, and executing of both Palestinian and Israeli citizens. see Bishop Eaton’s statement below. 44 nations have condemned the attack.

It’s hard to understand what Hamas thought they might accomplish here. They had to know it would elicit a deadly response. They have only made things worse for everyone in the region.

Hamas has 25,000 members among the 2.5 million inhabitants of Gaza. They have brutalized their own people, but are also supported by some who have had home bulldozed as settlers expand into the occupied territories.

On October 13, Israel ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City, to southern Gaza, but then it bombed the places to which people evacuated. A ground invasion began October 27. In six days, 6,000 bombs were dropped, including many 2000 pound bombs that kill people 1000 miles away. Many of these were dropped into densely populated areas. Numerous Israeli hostages were killed in the bombings.

Israel also instituted a complete blockade, allowing no food or water in.

Egypt brokered a conversation about a cease-fire. Hamas agreed to release women, children, sick, and elderly in exchange for a five day cease-fire. Netanyahu rejected it, but in time would agree after receiving pressure from hostage families who felt release of hostages should be the highest objective.

The abducted and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli group representing hostage families, said they would release of all Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the release of all Israeli hostages. This too was rejected.

The UN security council called for the immediate release of all hostages, and a humanitarian ceasefire. this was strongly supported by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

On October 31, Israel bombed the Jabalia refugee camp, drawing swift condemnation by many countries, including Bolivia, Honduras, Chile, Columbia, Honduras, Jordan, Turkey, Chad, Bahrain, South Africa, and others.

Finally, November 24-December 1 there was a brief ceasefire, at first five days, but eventually extended to seven days. An hour before the cease-fire was to end, Israel reported a rocket being intercepted from Gaza. Israel sent out fighter jets and the war was back on.

On December 15, Israeli soldiers accidentally shot dead three Israeli hostages.

As of December 28, 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced – 85% of the population. 20,000 Gazans have been killed, most of them women and children. 61 journalists have been killed. Many more bodies are estimated to be under the rubble. The international criminal court has accused both Hamas and Israel of war crimes.

A December 28, 2023 column in the Israeli paper Haaretz called the starvation of civilians in Gaza a war crime.

The humanitarian crisis is becoming worse by the minute.

Israel, like any country, has the right to defend itself, but massacre does not justify massacre.

We call for an immediate cease fire for all parties, and the immediate return of the remaining Israeli hostages and 7,000 Palestinians in Israeli custody.

As people of faith, let us pray for peace, call for peace, and work for peace, so that all Israelis and Palestinians may live in peace and safety.

ELCA presiding bishop issues statement on Israel-Hamas war

10/13/2023 12:00:00 PM

​“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?” —Psalm 22:1

Dear church,
As Lutherans, we are accustomed to holding tension between two truths. Thus the ELCA denounces the egregious acts of Hamas, acts that have led to unspeakable loss of life and hope. At the same time the ELCA denounces the indiscriminate retaliation of Israel against the Palestinian people, both Christian and Muslim.

For the past week we have borne witness to the horrors of the escalating crisis between Israel and Hamas. We also watch a growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel blocks food, water, fuel and medical supplies and as airstrikes continue to cause unbearable civilian casualties ahead of a just-announced ground assault. We see Israelis and families around the world in the agonizing wait for word about the fate of loved ones killed or taken hostage by Hamas. We are in anguish, grieving and praying for all people who are living in trauma, fear and uncertainty. 

Among us are Palestinian Lutherans who are fearful for their families, their communities and their homeland. In our communities we have Jewish and Muslim neighbors, who are also facing the horrors of this crisis and its impact on their loved ones. 

It is difficult to find words that suffice in the complexity of this moment, and in the web of relationships that bind us together, as church, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and our interreligious partners. Yet God has called us to be a people who stand with others amid suffering. 

We must also call a thing a thing. The power exerted against all Palestinian people — through the occupation, the expansion of settlements and the escalating violence — must be called out as a root cause of what we are witnessing. We are committed to our long-standing accompaniment of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.  

The God who liberates us calls us to be a liberating witness. May it be so.

In Christ,

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 

Things you can do: 

• Find updated resources and statements from the ELCA here.
• Join our partner Churches for Middle East Peace for prayer every Wednesday from 12:30 to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Register here.  
• Call your lawmakers today through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge them to take action to deescalate the conflict and uphold unrestricted humanitarian aid to Gaza. Find your member of Congress at govtrak. 
• Support Lutheran Disaster Response here.