Israel Wants Papal Help in Gaza
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen appealed to Pope Francis to help recover four Israelis held captive by Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reported January 18. Cohen also reached out to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations. He made his appeals after Hamas released a video of one of the captives.
Who’s in captivity? Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed are former Israeli soldiers whom Hamas detained after they walked into Gaza. Mengistu was detained in 2014, and Sayed a year later. Their families say they suffer from mental illness. Some speculate Hamas is hoping to use them in a prisoner swap.
Hamas also holds the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, Israeli soldiers killed in 2014.
Why the pope? In December, Pope Francis met with the families of the captives in the Vatican. He pledged to do what he could to bring the captives home.
The meeting lasted about 45 minutes, during which the pope addressed each of the members of the four families that participated, expressing deep solidarity with them.
The pope promised to work with governments and key religious leaders, seeking their return.
—Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs
What prophecy says: Hosea 5:13 says Judah (the biblical name for the Jews) would go to “the Assyrian” (modern Germany) for help with a “wound.” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote in his booklet Jerusalem in Prophecy:
Why do the Jews go to Germany, and what is Judah’s wound? The word wound is number 4205 in Strong’s Concordance. It means “in the sense of binding up: a bandage, i.e. remedy.” Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines it this way: “the pressing together, binding up of a wound; here used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wounds of the state.” In other words, the remedy is the wound! … Is the peace pact with the Arabs the Israeli wound that God refers to in Hosea 5:13?
Other prophecies show that the Vatican will be intimately involved with a German-led Europe. Jerusalem’s appeal to the pope may be a harbinger of future trust in the Vatican, but the Bible shows this will lead to a double cross.
