“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!” Global Director of Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast Albert Veksler told The Stream’s Nancy Flory Wednesday. Veksler is close to Jerusalem and has had to go to his secure room with his family multiple times since Hamas first attacked Israel Saturday.

“It’s a different world,” said Veksler. “We didn’t think that we will see such pictures, such footage like from the Holocaust, children being mocked, women being raped, elderly being beaten. It’s something that is absolutely unheard of. This is brutality. This is something so horrible. Since the Holocaust, there has not been any day that so many Jews would have been killed in one day as it was on October 7.”

And there’s more to come, Veksler explained. “I mean, the whole way how we used to live and everything has changed. I mean, there are warnings … from Arab villages and nearby towns that Hamas is calling for a day of revenge on Friday the 13th. They’re just across the valley from here.”

Veksler asked for prayer. “[W]e really would like to ask all our friends all over the world to pray. There are many promises in the Bible that speak to us about the captives being liberated … of the strong being set free because the God of Israel, God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob says that he who contends with the Jewish people, who contends with the Israeli people, contends with Him.”

“So, yes, we’ve received a very hard blow, but we will stand up. … Thank you for standing with Israel.”

Nancy Flory, Ph.D., is a senior editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.