Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

From 2005 until the Israeli military response to the October 7, 2023 massacre perpetrated by Hamas, Gaza had been self-governed. There was no so-called “Israeli occupation” of those territories, and since that year, as even the BBC has recognized, the Hamas terrorist group’s network of tunnels beneath densely populated areas did nothing more than grow. Rockets are launched from these tunnels and the bullets that killed civilians are stored there.

In November 2012, Hamas decided to build a large offensive tunnel to be able to infiltrate Israeli territory with assault teams and place bombs in Gazan urban areas, the BBC reported, and acknowledged that the entrances are usually located under homes, mosques, or schools.

The Israeli army came out to defend its population and eliminate Hamas positions that cowardly hide in tunnels under mosques, schools, and homes. Israelis protect their women and children; jihadists protect themselves with their women and children.

Meanwhile, the founder of the Hamas terrorist group, Khaled Mashal, called on Muslims around the world to hold a day of rage on Friday the 13th and apply Islamic jihad (holy war) on a global level. There were attacks in Belgium and France.

Israel notified the Gazan population days in advance that it would launch an attack on Hamas positions and urged them to leave the most densely populated areas. Egypt refused to open its border with Gaza to welcome refugees. What Arab solidarity!

During the first weeks of the Israeli operation to destroy the terrorists in northern Gaza, Hamas urged the population not to leave their homes (while also openly prohibiting them from doing so) in order to use them as human shields, hoping that anti-Zionist propaganda from the mainstream media would manipulate the sensitivity of Western nations and continue feeding the moral relativism of the sheep.

At the end of 2023, 15 evangelical churches, including some of the largest in Cuba, signed a forceful declaration that affirmed and argued their position regarding the new war between the Jewish state and jihadist terrorism. The public letter was perhaps the most prominent document against the regime’s foreign policy at that time.

The text argued from history, theology, and logic in a direction opposite to the propaganda emanating from the Ideological Department of the Communist Party of Cuba. But seen holistically, the material did not only point toward a clash of political visions. In the depths of the document, something even more powerful could be read.

Among its signatories were leaders of institutions included in the Registry of Associations, such as Moisés de Prada from Assembly of God in Cuba, David Moreno from La Bible Abierta, Bárbaro Abel Marrero from the Cuba Occidental Baptist Convention Association, and Aramis Rodríguez Coutin from the Eastern. It also included leaders such as Daniel Pérez Naranjo, the National Church Coordinator of the Reformed Baptist of Cuba Bareana Mission, which is not registered in the Registry of Associations and is “illegal” to the Cuban regime.

This implied, de facto, an affirmation between churches united by faith, a public confession that in the body of Christ they were treated with equal value, even if the socialist state denied their public recognition or attacked their institutional life. It was a kind of cry that above the totalitarian design was the service of the gospel. Christ yes, Castro no.

In each of these denominations, as in many others, Israeli flags were waved, tambourine dances were performed remembering the Jewish people, and the biblical stories about their heroes and patriarchs were remembered.

The Cuban evangelicals explained in the letter that while some blamed Israel exclusively for the bloodshed, the tragedy demanded a deeper analysis, which raised several questions: Did Hamas hope that Israel would respond differently? Could it be that the death of so many of their own innocent people suits them for their political agenda and to continue manipulating international opinion helps them achieve it effectively?

How is it possible that a sophisticated system of tunnels exists in Gaza for use by Hamas “militants,” yet they have not built air raid shelters to protect the vulnerable population? Why do they locate military centers, weapons warehouses, and missile launching stations toward Israel near and under schools, hospitals, and mosques?

More than 400 days later, the questions still resonate, unanswered, in the international community.