'You will never be alone again' - Nearly 2,000 Christians gather in Israel to mark Oct. 7

JERUSALEM — Nearly 2,000 Christian leaders, influencers and tourists from around the world were in Israel this week to commemorate the third year since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The different groups spent the week visiting sites of the massacres, meeting former hostages and expressing solidarity with Israelis still grappling with the events of that day.

The Ambassador Summit, a trip sponsored by Friends of Zion and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hosted a delegation of more than 1,000 Christian leaders from 122 countries while the Eagles’ Wings Awake Jerusalem tour brought nearly 550 leaders and influencers from 53 different nations, including tribal royalty from Nigeria. 

“The global church has awakened and returned to Jerusalem. The Jews and the State of Israel will never be alone again,” Bishop Robert Stearns, founder and president of Eagles’ Wings, told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. 

On Oct. 7, these Christian groups joined Jewish leaders, ambassadors, released hostages and bereaved families at the southern steps of the Western Wall for a memorial service.

Among those who addressed the crowd were released hostages Agam Berger, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Evyatar David and Bar Kupershtein, as well as Kupershtein’s grandfather, Holocaust survivor Michael Kupershtein. Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion and Israeli-Canadian businessman Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel, also spoke. 

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter addressed the gathering via video from a Jerusalem hospital where his son Neriya remains in serious condition following a terror attack last month.

“We are battling, really, for our existence. These are not separate areas of defense – Gaza Lebanon, Judea and Samaria, Iran the Iraqi militias, the Houthis – these are all attempts by different groups of people to eradicate us,” he warned. “But the truth is they are intent on eradicating Judeo-Christian civilization and, in this, we are together.”

Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem, honored the hostages, families of Oct. 7 victims, along with the Israeli plumber who helped rescue passengers aboard a flydubai flight on Sept. 30, when the pilot reportedly attempted to crash the plane.

Yaniv Hayun, who has become a local hero following the near-calamity, told ALL ISRAEL NEWS (AIN) that while his family is recovering from the traumatic events, he was inspired by the support of the Christian visitors. 

“These are the kind of things that help speed our healing. People like Mike Eavans are amazing. He’s an ambassador of God to the Jewish people,” he told AIN. “I wish they’d sent us thousands more people like this; it's such a blessing. It shows us that there are people in the world who see us, support, understand what we are going through." 

During the service, former hostage Sagui Dekel-Cohen recalled the destruction he witnessed as a first responder in Nir Oz on Oct. 7, where families were killed, others were taken captive and homes were set ablaze. He was taken hostage after being shot in the leg and shoulder and spent 498 days in captivity, while his wife and children waited in uncertainty.

Dekel-Cohen described seeing flames across the kibbutz and hearing gunfire while trying to help defend his community.

“I wish I could help more,” he said. “That’s a tough feeling because no matter how much we try to fight, no matter how much we try to save, it’s the 64 people we didn’t save that live inside you.” 

The events of the week had a strong impact on attendees. Belgian musician Corentin Motte, visiting Israel for the first time, said he deliberately arrived without fixed expectations.

“I just wanted to be like a kid,” he told AIN. “I didn’t come with expectations. I just asked, ‘Open my heart, open my eyes, open my spirit.’”

Motte said he planned to return to Belgium and speak about Israel based on his own experiences rather than simply repeating what he had seen in the media.

“I really want to impact people. People only know what the media says, but now I can say, ‘I’ve been to Israel, I’ve been to Palestine. I spoke with Israeli policeman; I spoke with Palestinian policeman,’” he said.

“When you are in Europe, you read the Bible with a European perspective,” he added. “You have to come here as a Christian to see.”

From London and also in Israel for the first time, Chad Miller had little to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and only knew of Israel from the Bible. Yet when he told others he planned to visit Israel, he was met with harsh criticism from people close to him.

Nevertheless, his experiences here reinforced the decision to come, he said.

“I met some of the – if not the – nicest people ever,” he said. ”It was a life-changing experience.”

As the pilgrimage continued, the groups visited the site of the Nova music festival massacre and other significant places in Israel.

For Jennifer Mallan, host of Come Home on Christian Television Network, this was a full-circle moment. Mallan was in Israel during the U.S.-Israel war on Iran and spent much of that time in bomb shelters where she prayed for the region.

“Little did I know that what was being birthed in those underground places in March and April would manifest so quickly above ground at the Western Wall, as I joined 1,000 Christian leaders and a global community of intercessors in 24 hours of prayer,” she told AIN. “We came to make the invisible Church visible – to let the Jewish people know they are not alone, that they have friends who will weep with them, stand beside them and refuse to remain silent in the face of this epidemic of Jew hatred.”

Mallan said she will return home with a “renewed mandate to keep standing, keep speaking and keep building bridges between the Church and Israel.”

“We are not merely witnesses to history – we have a mandate to help shape what comes next through prayer, truth, action and love,” she said.