(shofar blares)

- This week on "Jerusalem Dateline."

Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire,

but where will it lead?

Is it the end of the fighting?

And Israel's amazing Iron Dome technology,

saving lives on bothsides of the conflict.

But what happens whena rocket gets through?

We'll visit a family whose home was hit.

And the worst Israeli Arab violence

inside Israel in decades.

All this and more this weekon "Jerusalem Dateline."

(driving music)

Hello and welcome to thisedition of "Jerusalem Dateline."

I'm Chris Mitchell.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire

that stopped the heaviest fighting

between the two since 2014.

More than 200 died in Gaza,while 12 died inside Israel.

The ceasefire came after intense pressure

from the United States.

(missile roars)

In 11 days, Hamas firedmore than 4,000 rockets

into south and central Israel

that sent millions ofIsraelis running for shelter.

In response, Israel launched a massive

and surgical bombing campaignto stop those rockets.

Despite devastating damage toits military infrastructure,

Hamas and its supporterstook to the streets

and declared victory.

(Khalil speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Netanyahu,the Zionist enemy,

and his army said that theywould destroy the tunnels

above our resistance, and I tell him today

that our fighters are nowstriding proudly in the tunnels.

- [Chris] Iran supplied manyof the rockets to Hamas,

and in Tehran, the head ofIran's Revolutionary Guard

boasted a new Palestine has emerged.

In a live address,

Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu told the nation...

(Benjamin speaking in foreign language)

- [Interpreter] Theonly thing that leads me

in making decisions is the security

and safety of the Israeli people.

If there was a need to enterGaza with ground troops,

we would have done it, but I believe

we could accomplish ourgoals without doing so.

- [Chris] US President Joe Biden

pressured Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahu

to stop the fighting.

- I commended him for the decision

to bring the currenthostilities to a close

in less than 11 days.

I also emphasized what I'vesaid throughout this conflict.

The United States fully supports

Israel's right to defend itself.

- [Chris] Yet in Israel,nearly 3/4 of Israelis

felt the ceasefire came too soon

without eliminating Hamas'ability to wage war.

Hamas' charter calls forthe destruction of Israel.

And Islamic expert Dr.Mordechai Kedar told CBN News

that, for Hamas, the 11-dayconflict was a jihad,

a holy war, and Israelwas on the front lines.

Kedar says while the West maylook on this as a ceasefire,

Hamas sees this through the eyes

of the Arabic concept of hudna.

- Means a temporary ceasefire,

which is used by the jihadists

in order not to start the cause of peace,

but in order to regain his power

in order to have a betterjihad in the next phase.

- Israeli leaders now go back

to trying to form a government.

Even though most Israelisfelt the war ended too soon,

many approve of how IsraeliPrime Minister Netanyahu

handled the crisis, so hemay yet survive the challenge

to his leadership.

And it's possibleIsraelis will also end up

heading to the polls once again,

the fifth time in justmore than two years.

During the conflictbetween Israel and Hamas

and other Islamic terrorgroups inside Gaza,

I talked one-on-one withformer Israeli Ambassador

to the US Ron Dermer, whoaddressed a number of issues,

from Israel's right to defenditself to the importance

of evangelical Christiansupport for Israel.

(rockets roaring)

In the first week of the conflict alone,

Hamas and other terror groupsfired close to 3,000 missiles

into Israel, putting upto four million Israelis

in bomb shelters day or night.

Ambassador Ron Dermer wondershow Americans would respond.

- I would ask Americans

who are watching this unfold in Israel,

think about this.

Our army is fighting this war

and surgically going after the terrorists

not thousands of milesaway from our shores.

It's right in our backyard

when our own populationis in bomb shelters.

So imagine 150, 200 million Americans

sitting in bomb shelters.

What do you think they'dwant their army to do

in order to get at the terrorists

who were firing rockets at them?

- [Chris] Many of Hamas' rockets

have hit towns in southand central Israel,

including its secondlargest city, Tel Aviv.

Dermer blames Hamasfor a double war crime.

- They target our civilians

by firing rockets indiscriminately

into our population center,

hoping to kill as manyIsraelis as possible.

But the other thing they do

is they embed theirterrorist infrastructure

in civilian areas.

So they place theirweapons next to schools,

next to mosques, next to hospitals.

And they even took over,military intelligence of Hamas

took over a building where journalists are

because they want to usethese people as human shields.

Well, these are legitimatemilitary targets.

And even though they'relegitimate military targets,

we will take the steps necessary

to keep civilians out of harm's way.

(bomb explodes)

- [Chris] Israel has taken outlarge towers inside Gaza City

and large parts of Hamas' war machine,

but with relatively few casualties

in light of Israel'smassive bombing campaign.

- Because we warn them.

We actually call people.

We then fire a weapon

that sort of knocks atthe top of the building,

telling people get out of the building.

We give them the time to leave,

and then we take out the building.

- [Chris] The Associated Press is outraged

over Israel destroying thebuilding that housed its offices,

even though Israel reportedlyshowed evidence to the US

that Hamas worked out of that building.

Dermer says Hamas ismanipulating the media.

- Part of Hamas' strategyis to turn the media

into enablers for what they're doing.

How does it work?

They will fire rockets at us.

Then when we respond to that rocket fire

in those civilian areas, andunfortunately make a mistake

or there's collateraldamage, civilians die,

then Hamas wants the entireworld to blame Israel.

The media should report oneverything, on everything,

but they should lay the blamesquarely where it belongs,

on Hamas.

And if they understand Hamas,

the media will not enable them.

- [Chris] Dermer says Hamas' strategy

is to confuse the situation.

- They want to say bothsides are at fault.

Both sides are not at fault.

On one side, you have ademocracy called Israel

that values human life, thelives of our own citizens

and also the lives of our enemy civilians,

those who they are using as human shields.

On the other side, youhave a terror organization

that glorifies deaththat is trying to kill

as many Israelis as possible

and doesn't care about their own people.

They actually will use themin their propaganda wars.

And I don't think any moralequivalency should be made

between the two.

- [Chris] During the current conflict,

Dermer says US evangelicalsupport is vital.

- And I hope that Christians

will make their voices heard now.

I hope that they will calltheir representatives,

tell 'em how important itis to stand with Israel.

Because I can tell you something, Chris,

and you've seen this around the world,

those people who arethe opponents of Israel,

they're in the streets,

they're waving their flags,they're demonizing Israel.

And it's important that thefriends of Israel go out there

and make clear thatthey stand with Israel.

- [Chris] According to Dermer,

what lies ahead is adetermined Israeli campaign

to degrade Hamas' ability to wage war

so that this conflict does notrepeat itself anytime soon.

Around the world, people havebeen amazed at the ability

of Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system

to shoot down most of therockets fired out of Gaza.

We visited one of those batteries

somewhere in central Israel

where the Iron Dome has saved lives

on both sides of the conflict.

(rockets roaring)

During the recent conflict,

as some four million Israelissought cover in bomb shelters,

an aerial battle wastaking place in the sky

with Israel's Iron Domeproviding an amazing layer

of protection.

Behind me is one of the manyIron Dome anti-missile systems

here in south and central Israel.

During the conflict withHamas and other terror groups,

the Iron Dome has shot downmore than 90% of the rockets

coming out of the Gaza Strip.

- Imagine yourself that those 90% rockets

that were intercepted wouldbe falling into our city.

- [Chris] CBN News metone of the men responsible

for creating this technological marvel,

retired General Doron Gavish.

Through cooperation andfunding from the US,

Israel developed theanti-missile system 10 years ago.

It's the technological equivalent

of a bullet hitting a bullet.

- 10 years ago, it was only the beginning.

We had to kind of invent the wheel

because there is noother place in the world

that something like this is going on.

- [Chris] This viral picture,

literally seen 'round the world,

captured the essence of the Iron Dome.

On the right side, you seerockets fired from Gaza.

Then on the left side,Iron Dome shuts them down.

- I see, first of all, thewillingness of the Hamas

to throw rockets into our cities.

This is something intolerable

and this is somethingthat we cannot accept,

I think neither us and neitherany democracy in the world.

- [Chris] CBN Newsexperienced the effectiveness

of the Iron Dome when we tookshelter from a rocket attack

and heard the Iron Domeintercept two missiles overhead.

(missile explodes)

General Gavish sees it as a true lifesaver

on both sides of the fight.

Many believe, without Iron Dome,

Israel would have beenforced into a ground war,

with potentially massive casualties.

- By the end of the day,we could look in the mirror

and we could say we did somethingfor the defense of Israel,

we did something for ourcivilians, and we're saving life.

And this is what the air defense is doing.

- Terrorists from Gaza launchedmore than 4,000 rockets

at Israel in this 12-day war.

Most that were headed for populated areas

were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome.

But here's what can happenwhen one breaks through.

(sirens wail)

After enduring a night of sirens,

Keyla and Javier Montenegro

spent Friday night sleepingin the bomb shelter.

(Keyla speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] About sixo'clock in the morning,

the siren went off again.

I heard it at a distance,

because when you're in theshelter, it's not very loud.

I got up very quickly and closed the door,

and when I turned, I heard a boom.

It was the explosion.

- Boom.

(Keyla speaking Spanish)

(bomb explodes)

(Javier speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] When I left the shelter,

there was a smell of gunpowderand water was falling

because the rocket hadhit the water tank first,

and that prevented a fire in the house.

- [Chris] The rocket hit their building,

then exploded beforecrashing through the ceiling

of their top floor apartment.

(Javier speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] What impacted me the most

was that the Lord put peace in my heart.

The neighbors were witnesses.

They didn't know why we had so much peace.

(Keyla speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] Later, we realized

that we had several miracles.

A few centimeters more,

the rocket would havegotten into the house

and it would have destroyed everything.

Thank God the explosion wasabove and not inside the house.

- [Chris] Some four million Israelis,

nearly half of Israel's population,

have been terrorized inside bomb shelters.

Most of the rockets havehit the coastal region,

but many have come here to Beer Sheva,

and this one made a directhit on the Montenegros' home.

(Javier speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] We've beenliving in Israel for 19 years.

This is our seventh war.

With each war, we see thatthe technology is greater

on the enemy side with a longerrange and much more power.

- [Chris] The Jewish Agencyvisited the Montenegros,

who are immigrants fromArgentina, to show their support.

- This round has been a veryrough one, an intensive one,

and I should say it never makes sense

and it never should be natural for anyone,

any civilian population togo through what we're going.

And so we are strong people.

We will come out ofit, hopefully stronger,

but we pray for quietand for peace for all.

- [Chris] Christians from around the world

also showed support to the Montenegros,

who bear no ill willtoward the people of Gaza.

(Javier speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] The Palestinianpeople are not Hamas.

Unfortunately, they havea terrorist government

and they're the ones that arebringing on this conflict.

We all want peace.

Jews want peace, but alsothe Palestinians want peace.

The only thing we can do is pray.

- [Chris] They are thankful to be alive.

(Keyla speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] We haveexperienced in our lives

the sovereignty of God.

Everything that happens is for a purpose,

and to those who love God,

all things work together for good.

I feel we're safe in His hands.

(Javier speaking Spanish)

- [Interpreter] God in His mercy

allowed His Word to be fulfilled.

10,000 may fall at your right hand,

but it will not touch you.

We thank God we're healthy.

We're blessed by God.

We want to take this messageof peace and hope to Israel

and the rest of the world.

(driving music)

- [Chris] Coming up, Islamic groups target

one of the largestChristian Facebook pages

that brought millionstogether to pray for Israel

during the conflict.

(upbeat music)

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(rhythmic music)

(soft piano music)

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(driving music)

- While Islamic groups fromGaza fired rockets into Israel,

another battle, this time online,

when Islamic groups attacked

one of the largestChristian Facebook pages.

The page brought millionsof Christians together

to pray for Israel andthe peace of Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Prayer Team,established nearly 20 years ago

with a reported nearly 77million followers on Facebook,

saw it suddenly shut down.

Mike Evans tells CBN News ananti-Semitic campaign of hate

targeted the Facebook page.

- An organized Islamic campaign

coming out of Pakistan,Indonesia, and Turkey

targeted our site withover one million comments.

So Facebook, rather thancontact Bible believers

and find out the truth, they responded

to radical Islamic 911would-bes and pulled us down.

- [Chris] The cyber campaign happened

in the middle of the team's prayer time

during the conflictbetween Hamas and Israel.

- We've been praying for peace.

We've been praying forGod to protect Israel.

We've been praying for peace in Jerusalem.

We've been praying for a blessing

over the Jewish people,protection over the Jewish people.

We've been praying forprotection over Arab Israelis.

- [Chris] The attack campaign was twofold.

First came the negative Facebook comments.

- People coming from anti-Semitic groups

calling for a second Holocaust,

people attacking us personally,

people making threats upon us personally.

- [Chris] Second, the hackersspread a false narrative

that Facebook created thepage during the conflict

and then had people like thepage without their consent.

Dozens of videos with thousands of views

across social platformscelebrated the news

that the prayer team's page was down.

Al Jazeera also reported on the situation.

- I'm incredibly disappointed right now,

basically that instead ofthese anti-Semitic people

who are attacking Christians

for praying for peace in Jerusalem,

for praying for peaceand end of the bloodshed,

and instead of stoppingthose anti-Semitic attacks

against us, Facebookhas shut our page down.

- [Chris] The Jerusalem Prayer Team

is appealing the decision andEvans has enlisted the help

of US and Israeli leaders.

CBN News reached out to Facebook

and provided us with this statement:

"We removed JerusalemPrayer Team's Facebook page

for violating our rules against spam

and inauthentic behavior.

- My prayer right now is that Facebook

would start to act with,hopefully, integrity

on the situation and restore our prayers.

You know, in this era,

the fact that yourprayers could be canceled

on the internet is an unimaginable thing.

- [Chris] Evans came to Israel

to report from the frontlines of the conflict

as part of a television special

that includes many Christian leaders.

- But it's to bring solidarityfor the state of Israel

and to oppose the lies to theevangelicals of the world.

- [Chris] Evan sees thespecial as an effort

to win the media warand counter what he says

is the mainstream media believingthe lies of radical Islam.

(driving music)

Up next, as the world focusedon the Israeli Gaza conflict,

the worst Jewish Arab tensions in decades

raged inside Israel.

- [Announcer] Too often, wecarry baggage from our past.

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- I asked my pastor, I said,

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He says, "Well no, youalready have a pulpit."

- [Announcer] Wednesday night at 8:30

on the CBN News Channel.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Woman] This is our nature as a country.

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- Literally, we felt the earth shaking.

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(driving music)

- While most internationalattention has been focused

on Hamas launching rockets from Gaza

and Israel's militaryresponse, on the ground,

some fear a greaterscourge is taking place:

growing violence betweenArab and Jewish Israelis

throughout Israel.

We traveled to the mixedJewish Arab city of Lod

and spoke with policespokesman Micky Rosenfeld

about the situation.

(driving music)

Micky, tell us, we're here in Lod.

What's been going on?

- We're at the entrance ofLod in the heart of Israel.

We're about five kilometersfrom the international airport.

We've had major disturbances and riots

that have taken place inside the city.

And at the moment,

there are more than 500extra border police officers

tactically located at all different areas

in order to prevent any further riots.

Both inside the city itself, where we are,

we've had synagogues that had been burned.

An Israeli man was murdered brutally

by Israeli Arab suspects who were arrested

as part of the ongoing investigation.

But this is a flashpoint

in the heart of Israel at the moment.

- So as we cross here,Micky, what sparked all this?

How did this all get started?

- Well, this was part of the tensions

that took place all across Israel,

unfortunately, by Israeli Arabs

who were involved in disturbances,

took to the streets unnecessarily,and it's very sad to see

because the Israeli Arabsare part of our community.

All of a sudden, they take to the streets,

and as you can see here, they were burned,

burning stuff, burning equipment.

They were involved in full-scale riots.

All of this was equipment thatthey use to block the roads.

There was a full scale riot

where our police units, overhere where we are right now,

had to use non-lethal weapons and disperse

and prevent the Israeli Arabsfrom attacking Jewish people

here in the city.

It's not 1948. It's not 1967.

It's not the pogroms.

These type of acts cannot take place

in a modern democratic society.

- What has been done to tryto diffuse the situation?

Have leaders of Jewish andArab communities been meeting?

- Our police officers andthe commanders of the city

have met with the mayor.

We're calling upon all of the residents

to take control of thesituation and be calm.

We are asking the leadersalso to walk around with us

and be on the streets,get the message out.

It's not just a tacticalpolice effort on the ground,

but it's also an importantleadership effort

that has to also take place by the mayor

and the leaders of theIsraeli Arab communities.

I can also confirm to youthat, over the last 24 hours,

the situation has calmed down somewhat,

but a lot of policeactivity's taking place,

searching for weapons thatcould be inside apartments

that could be used, and wewant to do everything possible

to make sure that there won'tbe anyone that will be killed

or majorly injured here inside the city,

both Jewish residents, as wellas Israeli Arab residents.

- A lot of people thatwatch this pray for Israel.

How would you recommend thatthey pray for the situation?

- Well, Israel is a strong country.

Israel has a humanitarian army.

We're praying for our soldiersand our security officers

and the Israeli National Police.

They're doing everything toprotect and serve the country.

We've been through difficult times before.

We'll succeed in gettingthrough these times as well.

And we're hoping that we'll be able

to minimize the number of casualties,

and that's what we're dealing with.

(driving music)

- [Chris] Still ahead,

an artist who has been working for years

to turn deadly Hamas rocketsinto something beautiful.

(driving music continues)

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- [Announcer] "On the Homefront."

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- [Announcer] Wednesday at3:00 on the CBN News Channel.

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- [Announcer] Thursday night at 8:30

on the CBN News Channel.

(driving music)

- As you have seen throughout our show,

Israelis have beenplagued by rocket attacks

for more than a decade.

Here's a story we did some years ago

about one Israeli artist

who was working to turnthat suffering into beauty.

- [Julie] Yaron Bob is anart teacher and blacksmith

who lives in Yated, asmall Israeli community

near the border with the Gaza Strip.

- The first Kassam that I was receiving,

I didn't want to touch them.

This is an instrument of death.

- [Julie] Bob gets the spent rockets

after they have beenchecked by the bomb squad.

- I start to play with the Kassam

and start to see what I can do.

It struck me that I need tomake a rose from the Kassam.

- [Julie] The base is a map of Israel

with a rose growing outof the border with Gaza.

- I take the Kassam,the instrument of death,

and I change it, I transferit into something of beauty.

- Well, that's just one wayIsraelis have, for years,

been redeeming this horrific situation.

Please remember to pray forthe protection of Israel.

And remember the psalmist said

that "he that watches over Israel

shall neither slumber nor sleep."

And pray that He will comfort all those

who have lost loved ones in this conflict.

And remember to, on Saturday, May 22nd,

we'll be presenting an online webinar

called "Israel Under Fire from Gaza."

To sign up, go togo.cbn.com/israelunderfire.

Well, that's all for this edition.

I'm Chris Mitchell.

We'll see you next timeon "Jerusalem Dateline."

(driving music)