By: David R. Parsons, ICEJ Vice President and Senior Int. Spokesman

The latest Hamas rocket war against Israel appears to be winding down with a very fragile unwritten ceasefire on Friday, but the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem will continue to reach out with urgent relief efforts to the embattled Israeli front-line communities along the Gaza border area, while also getting ready to sponsor Aliyah flights for dozens of Jewish immigrants expected to arrive next week. This is amazing news – not even this raging conflict was able to stop the Aliyah!

Over recent days, the ICEJ has been pressing ahead with a series of emergency relief efforts aimed primarily at assisting the hardest-hit communities closest to the Gaza border area. This has included the following:

Bomb Shelters: The ICEJ has ordered 15 new portable bomb shelters for front-line towns and villages on the Gaza and northern borders. And thanks to the generous response of Christian donors to our urgent appeal this week, we hope to have funds soon for at least five more bomb shelters.

Protective Vests: We will be delivering 45 new bullet-proof vests to security and first-responder teams in the Gaza periphery, who were already in 24/7 emergency mode over two weeks ago – ever since Palestinian terror militias in Gaza first started dozens of wildfires in their region with incendiary balloons in early May.

Trauma Relief: The Christian Embassy will be working with trauma resilience centers and counselors nearest the Gaza border to help Israeli families with children recover from the harrowing experience of being stuck in bomb shelters amid intense rocket barrages over the past eleven days. Similar stress relief efforts will be provided to dozens of children from recent Jewish immigrant families who have been living in absorption centers under fire.

Social Relief: Working with local social workers, we will be providing food or other basic needs for families in dire need in the worst-hit areas.

In addition – and this is quite remarkable given the intense fighting – the ICEJ will be assisting with Aliyah flights for at least 200 of the hundreds of new Jewish immigrants from more than 20 nations expected to land in Israel over coming days.

We will be covering the flight and other transportation costs for 99 members of the Bnei Menashe community who have been approved to come under an emergency decision of the Israeli government due to the coronavirus surge in India. The decision will allow 548 Bnei Menashe to come as soon as possible, with the first flight of 274 currently scheduled to land on May 31.

Meanwhile, we have committed to helping the Jewish Agency for Israel with flights and other immigration costs for their ‘Aliyah Super Week’ planned for next week, which was amazingly set to go on even with the conflict. JAFI now expects over 400 Jewish immigrants to arrive in Israel next week on flights coming from more than 20 countries, including: Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Finland, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States.

At present, the ICEJ can sponsor Aliyah flights for at least 100 of these new arrivals, but with your help there is still time for us to commit to more flights. So please consider a generous gift to assist us with the Aliyah Super Week.

Thank you for all you are doing to help us meet these urgent needs during this very difficult period for Israel.
 

Please, donate towards our Israel in Crisis relief efforts.

Please, donate towards our urgent Aliyah efforts.