The Associated Press (“AP News”) is reporting that tiers of graves are stacked deep underground in the Deir al-Balah Cemetery, where Sa’di Baraka spends his days hacking at the earth, making room for more dead. “Sometimes we make graves on top of graves,” according to Baraka, who along with a corps of volunteer gravediggers at the cemetery start at sunrise, digging new trenches or reopening existing ones.
The small, densely populated strip of land is now packed with bodies. A steady drumbeat of death since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel has claimed nearly 2% of Gaza’s pre-war population.
According to Palestinian author Yousri Alghoul, “it seems that Gaza’s fate is to become one large cemetery, with its streets, parks and homes, where the living are merely dead awaiting their turn.”
The AP News article may be read in full HERE.
My brothers and sisters, this situation, on what was already an overly populated strip of land, is incredibly disturbing and seems so completely unnecessary. Why? Why create a society feeding on such incredible hatred toward your neighbors that you are willing to destroy your own people, lands and lives?
Yousri Alghoul’s statement is heart wrenching and yet, morbidly poetic. Imagine saying about your hometown that it has become one large cemetery where “the living are merely dead awaiting their turn.” Lord have mercy!
As followers of Christ, it may seem obvious and in some eyes, ‘easy to say,’ but the truth of the matter is that the Palestinian/Israeli situation is the result of the evil one deceiving the peoples of the world – causing many to have their minds debased to the point that they can’t even recognize the truth anymore, believing that death is better than life and hating one’s neighbor to the bitter end (or better put, until the glorious return of Jesus Christ) is the answer.
The Holy Bible makes it clear that evil can overtake our minds, blinding us to the truth, and that Satan is the deceiver of the whole world – a liar, whose purpose is to steal, kill and destroy, hating all of humanity:
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (Amplified Bible)
“But even if our gospel is [in some sense] hidden [behind a veil], it is hidden [only] to those who are perishing; among them the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving [emphasis mine] to prevent them from seeing the illuminating light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Romans 1:28-29 (Amplified Bible)
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or consider Him worth knowing [as their Creator], God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do things which are improper and repulsive, until they were filled (permeated, saturated) with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice and mean-spiritedness.”
Revelation 12:7-9 (ESV)
Satan Thrown Down to Earth
“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world [emphasis mine]—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Let’s remember and shout it to the rooftops, that the Truth is a Person and His name is Jesus! We have redemption and eternal life only through Jesus, our Lord and Savior:
Acts 4:11-12 (Amplified Bible)
Peter Speaks to the High Priest, Magistrates, Elders and Scribes
“This Jesus is the stone which was despised and rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief Cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among people by which we must be saved [for God has provided the world no alternative for salvation].”
John 14:6 (NKJV)
“Jesus said to [Thomas], ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”