|PIC1|Baptists around the world are uniting in prayer for God’s intervention in the conflict in Lebanon as diplomats remain divided over the timing of a ceasefire and Beirut takes another pounding.

Baptists in Lebanon called on fellow believers around the world to pray for peace in their region as Israeli jets launched an air assault on 70 targets in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold overnight, according to a spokeswoman for the Israeli army.

Nabil Costa (Beirut), director of the Baptist-allied Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD), condemned the violence: “Innocent civilians have lost their lives and considerable destruction of the country’s infrastructure has occurred.”

|TOP|According to Costa, Baptists from Atlanta, Georgia, and Forney, Texas, are among some of the foreign Christian workers who have remained in the area despite Israel’s bombing campaign.

Costa voiced his hope that “God might intervene and give wisdom to the powers that be that they might seek long-term peaceful solutions”.

He also expressed the concern that the world would forget about Lebanon.

“Yet we as Christians should seek our Father's intervention, for our Father who is in heaven listens to our prayers.”

|AD|Meanwhile Regina Claas, Chairperson of the Baptist World Alliance’s Commission for Human Rights and Religious Freedom and General-Secretary of Germany’s Union of Evangelical-Free Churches, has also appealed for prayer on the Middle East conflict.

“Through faith in the living God we trust in God’s power to one day solve even the seemingly insurmountable conflicts in the Middle East.”

She added: “In this time of need we want to support our brothers and sisters and the civil population in the whole region with our prayers and beseech God for wisdom for the political decision-makers.”

The European Baptist Federation (EBF) Executive Committee also condemned the continuing conflict in the Middle East, expressing ‘concern’ at the death of so many innocent civilians in the Israel, Palestine and Lebanon.

It added its “deep disappointment at the disproportionate use of force by the Israeli military in their pursuit of Hezbollah”.

The EBF joined in the calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities, adding that it was praying for a “just and lasting peace for all peoples and a negotiated ceasefire”.