This delivery of lifesaving aid is the first in The Fellowship's $120,000 effort to provide assistance to Christian and Druze communities in the region, which has recently suffered a string of attacks and seen sharply escalating tensions between the Druze communities and Syria's new regime. In recent weeks alone, hundreds of Christians have been killed, and at least 73 Druze fatalities have been reported in the violent clashes.
"If there is violence and persecution happening on Israel's border, we cannot look away," said Yael Eckstein, President & Global CEO of The Fellowship. "It is our responsibility to stand with Christians on our borders to provide them with aid, and to stand with all Christians facing persecution across the Middle East in the same way Christians have always stood by Israel during her times of greatest need."
The food boxes provided by The Fellowship include staple food items aimed at alleviating immediate hunger and nutritional concerns faced by those displaced due to the ongoing violence.
The Fellowship also plans to provide basic medical supplies for a local clinic in the village of Rima, which serves multiple Christian and Druze communities, and hopes to eventually expand its support of the clinic to include additional, much-needed advanced equipment, such as X-ray machines and ventilators. Such an expansion would significantly enhance the clinic's ability to diagnose and treat more complex medical conditions, as the nearest hospital is nearly 40 miles away.
While the operation is the first of its kind for The Fellowship, the organization has long supported the Israeli Christian community, by providing Christmas food boxes for those in need, and funding medical facilities, including a hospital in Nazareth.
"We pray that this aid will not only provide for their physical needs, but will give them hope and let them know there are people who care about them," Eckstein added. "The world may be silent about Christians facing persecution, but The Fellowship is not – and our supporters are not."
About The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
For more than 40 years, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship) has been the leading nonprofit building bridges between Christians and Jews, blessing Israel and the Jewish people around the world with humanitarian care and lifesaving aid. In 2024, The Fellowship helped more than 2 million people living in poverty, helped thousands make aliyah back to their homeland, Israel, and helped strengthen Israel's security infrastructure. To learn more about The Fellowship's work, visit www.ifcj.org.
About Yael Eckstein
Yael Eckstein is the President and Global CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. As a respected Jewish leader, speaker, author, and host of the Nourish Your Biblical Roots and The Chosen People podcasts, Yael continues the legacy of her father, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of building bridges of faith between Christians and Jews globally. With two decades of nonprofit experience in multiple roles, she has the rare distinction of being a woman leading one of the world's largest religious charitable organizations. The Jaffa Institute's 2024 Woman of the Year and The Jerusalem Post's 2023 Humanitarian of the Year, Yael is a Chicago-area native based in Israel with her husband and their four children.
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SOURCE International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
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