Hezbollah rockets lit up the sky above Nazareth, Israel, last Monday as sirens wailed across the city. 

Windows shook from explosions as the Iron Dome — Israel’s missile defense system — intercepted the incoming projectiles. 

Sandro Jadon, who lives at the Nazareth Church of Christ as a caretaker, sheltered between the church’s multiple buildings.

He videoed the fiery collisions happening miles overhead. 

“It’s kind of like thunder and lightning, hurricanes, tornadoes,” Jadon said. “It’s all in the hands of God, because Hezbollah’s rockets are not accurate, so they could be aiming for a military base, and then it hits something else like civilians.”

The night before, remains from an intercepted rocket fell in Jesus’ hometown. 

Church members, weary from a night filled with sirens and explosions, filed into the auditorium for worship hours later. 

“We were surprised that people showed up,” said Jadon, whose father, Maurice, preaches for the Nazareth congregation. “Most of them had lost sleep, because Saturday night all through Sunday morning, there were sirens and loud missile interceptions. Every hour or so, I would wake up because of the siren.”

This conflict marks the largest escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border in almost a year. 

Since Sunday, terrorist organizations have launched more than 300 rockets, cruise missiles and drones from Lebanon into northern Israel, according to the Israeli military. Israeli emergency services have reported only minor civilian injuries. 

Home Front Command — Israel’s military division responsible for civil protection — updated its safety guidelines for northern Israel, limiting outdoor gatherings to fewer than 10 people and indoor gatherings to less than 100. 

The military command also suspended school on Monday and closed public beaches. 

“We all have been through this before,” said Jadon, 41. “I mean, I’m not that old, but I’ve felt it since the Gulf War. I was here in 2006 for the Lebanon War.”

On Monday, the Israeli military bombarded Lebanon with airstrikes, leading to the deadliest day in the country in nearly two decades, with the Lebanese health ministry reporting more than 550 casualties.

An Israeli airstrike in a residential district of Beirut on Tuesday morning killed one of the top commanders in Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit, according to the Israeli military.

“Israel is showing their teeth more,” Jadon said. “I think this is the knockout round, where Hamas is pretty much gone and Hezbollah is getting the same fate.”

 This piece is republished with permission from The Christian Chronicle.

Audrey Jackson, a 2021 journalism graduate of Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas, is The Christian Chronicle’s managing editor.