Benjamin Wearp heard the rockets from his house in Har Bracha, Israel.
“On the morning of October 7, I heard explosions in the distance. There were also telltale contrails in the sky from rockets and Israel’s defense system, the Iron Dome... The explosions, and an increase of IDF (Israel Defense Forces) in the area that morning, was our first indication that something was amiss,” the 26-year-old Wayne County native shared recently via email interviews.
It wasn’t the first time he’s heard rocket attacks, so he didn’t initially imagine anything was different this time.
“Then the news began coming in from the South, and I turned on my phone and saw the absolutely horrific images and videos that rocked Israel, and the world, that day,” he said.
The community of Har Bracha sits on Mt. Gerazim, overlooking Jerusalem. It’s a world away from Patterson, Missouri, where Wearp grew up, but he feels his life has always been connected to Israel through his family’s Christian faith and involvement in Holocaust remembrance. He first traveled to Israel in 2011 at age 13 alongside his father and brother on a volunteer trip.
Today, Wearp lives part-time in Har Bracha as a marketer for Blessed Buy Israel, a company his family founded to support producers in the West Bank. The area where he lives is out of rocket range, he said.
“When we began to look for products, we found so many people who, against all odds, are creating a beautiful future in land that until relatively recently, was barren,” he said.
Wearp said the situation between Hamas and Israel was “very intense” even before the deadly attack and Israel-Hamas War that, at the one month mark, shows no signs of slowing.
In an email, he said Israel was united by suffering and determination alike.
“No one in Israel has been spared the effects of the horrible, traumatic events of October 7th. Everyone has lost a friend, or knows someone who has had a friend or family member murdered or kidnapped,” he wrote. “I have many friends here who have been shaken by the horrors Israel experienced on that dark day. But they are also filled with resolve to fight the existential threats they face, and emerge from this stronger.”
Many Israelis were killed and kidnapped during the first attack. Since then, 10,000 casualties have been reported from Gaza amid Israeli airstrikes and at least one misfired rocket from within the territory.
Wearp placed the blame for Palestinian deaths squarely with Hamas.
“We know there are many in Gaza who are not part of Hamas and have lost their lives as a result of this war” he said. “But the responsibility for these tragic civilian casualties rests solely on Hamas. They’ve told Gazans not to leave war zones, and closed evacuation routes. They use civilians as humans shields, storing weapons in, and launching rockets from, residential areas, schools and hospitals.”
Both Hamas and Israel have been accused of war crimes in the conflict.
Wearp also noted Gazan casualties numbers are reported by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. The Associated Press reported the ministry is under the government umbrella of Hamas but is run by a rival faction of the group, and a second Palestinian source, a parallel health ministry in Ramallah, operates in Israel’s West Bank and receives the same data from hospitals and morgues in Gaza.
Controversy over the Health Ministry’s numbers arose after the al-Ahli Hospital strike Oct. 17. On Oct. 26, it released the names, sexes, ages and identity cards of the 6,747 casualties claimed up to that point. AP confirmed the Health Ministry divides casualties into men, women and children, but does not distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths.
Wearp said the war poses an existential threat to the Jewish people akin to the Holocaust.
“The situation has changed — the Jewish People have a state now — but the same ugly hatred exists, and the vile expression of wickedness we saw when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel has been long in coming,” he wrote.
A family friend of the Wearps is a soapmaker named Shlomo, or Solomon, who has three sons in the military.
“One is on the Lebanon border, another in the south, where troops are ready, waiting for orders to go into Gaza, to eliminate Hamas,” Wearp said.
On the home front, Wearp believes Christians have a spiritual mandate to support Israel, and does not intend to leave the country before his visa expires in December.
“Right now, I’m just a visitor in Israel, doing what I can to support and strengthen the Jewish People,” he said.
For Blessed Buy Israel, this means transporting supplies to communities in central Israel who need security and support while IDF soldiers gather at the northern and southern borders. He also urges fellow Americans to support the company and its partners Serve Israel and The Israel Guys during the conflict.
The situation is “extremely volatile,” and there’s no denying the presence of war and the continued tensions on Israel’s borders, even in areas outside the range of rockets.
“Yet I don’t feel the fear that could come with living in such a war zone,” Wearp said. He quoted Psalm 121: “Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”