“Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
These hallowed words of King David in Psalm 23 certainly ring true for the valiant soldiers of the IDF, you are still walking in the valley of death on the soil of Gaza. Notwithstanding the darkness, there are stories emanating, that Hashem is truly shining his light upon the men and women in Gaza. I share with you three of many stories that have emerged as rays of light from these dark days.
The Flaming Can of Tuna
A Journalist reported that he had gone to Gaza and met up with a unit of soldiers where one officer told him, “We had conquered a certain area in a refugee camp, and we sat down to eat. One of the soldiers took out a tin of tuna and wanted to smoke it. As was the custom in the IDF, he lit a fire with the oil inside the tin. The soldiers around him started to yell, “What are you doing, There’s ammunition all around. He immediately took the can and threw it into the ruins of one of the houses. Suddenly we heard explosions. We were sure we were being attacked, and so we took our guns and started shooting. A few minutes went by, and a group of terrorists came out of the building waving a white flag.”
The flaming can of tuna had fallen into one of the tunnels under the building. Hamas had hidden munitions there, together with a group of terrorists, about to attack the IDF soldiers. The munitions exploded, the terrorists thought they were being attacked, they left the building and surrendered. The drop of oil did not just smoke the tuna, it destroyed a cache of weapons and smoked out a group of terrorists.
The Heroic Farmer
Rami Davidian, a 58-year-old farmer from Moshav Patish, an Israeli farming community near the Gaza Strip, showed incredible bravery on October 7th by risking his life to save hundreds of people in driving tirelessly back and forth to pick up survivors.
In one incident, Rami received a distress call from a terrified girl hiding under a tree. With quick thinking, he instructed her to stay on the call while he drove towards her location. When reaching the girl was sitting among five terrorists.
With remarkable wisdom, Rami said. “I was unarmed and outnumbered. I spoke to them in Arabic and told them that I was a Yemenite Muslim coming to alert them that IDF soldiers were coming. I advised them to leave the girl and escape, while they still could.” Thankfully, the terrorists believed he was an Arab man trying to assist them, and they retreated.
Rami said: “On that fateful day, the hand of Hashem touched me and guided me to do this. To me those children were like my own children, and I needed to get them to safety.”
The Miraculous Dove
An elite unit was sent into a designated evacuated area in Gaza on a dangerous mission. Israeli intelligence had determined that there was a very large cache of weapons, explosives, and other army materials in one of the basements of the buildings. Their mission was to determine which house or basement these weapons were located and then detonate them and take out any terrorists they encounter.
When they entered the region there were no people or animals in sight. This was a precarious mission; therefore, they entered the designated area in troop line fashion. One soldier immediately behind the other each touching the shoulder of the man in front, as one unit in a chain formation.
As they slowly walk down the block, to their amazement, a white dove appeared on a roof top. The dove then flew down and headed straight towards the platoon.
The white dove, then miraculously stopped in front of the Commander, flapping its wings, and hovering in mid-air! The Commander who has not slept in 36 hours, thought he was hallucinating began to refocus his vision. He could not comprehend what is going on, then as he reached out to the bird with his rifle tip. The soldier behind him, grabs him and jolts him back.
The commander then took a second look and saw that the white dove was not hovering, but sitting on a tripwire, which was strung up across the entire street.
If he would have taken one more step, he would have triggered the wire. Later they discovered that the wire was linked to a large cache of explosives that were hidden in the nearby building. There were enough explosives to blow up the entire block together with the soldiers.
The dove then flew off, saving the entire platoon of soldiers.
As we honour the survivors and remember those who lost their lives.
Let us come together in prayer for the safe return of all hostages and victorious end to the Gaza War.
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