Bedouin Hostages Recovered in Gaza

Hostage Youssef Ziyadne, 53, taken by Hamas from Israel on October 7, 2023, was found dead in a tunnel in southern Rafah on Tuesday, along with his 23-year-old son, Hamza, father of two.

A Bedouin dairy farmer, Youssef was the primary provider for his two wives, 18 children and 20 grandchildren. His daughter Aisha, 17, and son Bilal, 18, were also abducted from Kibbutz Holit near the Gaza border, but Hamas released them on November 30, 2023.

The Bedouins are nomadic Arabs inhabiting the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa. They number about 25 million and are divided into many tribes and languages. They follow both Islam and tribal traditions, including some witchcraft. In Israel, the Bedouins number about 131,000, mostly in the Negev desert of the south, and are considered nearly 100% unreached by the gospel of Christ. 

Let’s continue in prayer as Hamas and Israel inch toward a possible ceasefire/hostage release. To pray for the remaining hostages by name who are hoped to still be alive, visit our Israel-Gaza-Lebanon page.

Pray for Israel Hostages in Gaza by Name

Lord, we thank You that Aisha and Bilal were released over a year ago. As they and their family grieve their father’s death and anxiously await news of Hamza, please speak to them in powerful ways. Show them who You truly are and make the way for them to hear the good news and understand. Use the hurt and anger that Muslims kidnapped their family and killed their father to give each of the Ziyadnes and their community a burning need to be done with the violence, hatred and evil propagated by Islam, and fervently seek the God of Love. Send each of them on a quest for Truth that leads them to Jesus. John 10:10. Be gracious to them. Heal their minds, hearts and bodies from the trauma they have experienced. Open the way for the Ziyadne siblings and all the hostages from Israel who have been released to receive the counseling and care they need, but especially to hear the good news and be saved. Bring Christian doctors, aid workers and counselors to them to show them Your love and the way to salvation. Give them dreams and visions to point them to You. Give them access to a Bible in their heart language, and convict them of its truth.

Be near to the hostages still alive in Gaza. Let them feel Your presence and hear Your voice speaking tenderly to them. Tend to all their needs, comfort them with Your love, and show them Your salvation. Place Your angels around them, and make that shield visible to their guards. Invade the dreams of everyone in Hamas. Make them so repulsed by the atrocities they have seen and committed that they lay aside Islam and seek Jesus. Give hostages favor with their guards and give the guards courage to go against Hamas’ commands and do what is right. Single out those in Hamas whom You will turn from darkness to Light. Use them to courageously arrange the escape of many hostages, and shield and empower them as they carry out Your plans. Father God, we ask You for many miracles. May every Palestinian and every Hamas terrorist see that You alone are God and that You are GOOD. Turn their stomachs as You open their eyes to see the horrors of religion gone wrong. Prove Yourself the God of Love and how terrorism serves Satan, not the Almighty. Bring them to their knees in fear of the Lord and in surrender to Your love. Break their hearts for what breaks Yours and draw them up into Your arms to receive Christ as Savior before it’s too late.

Lord, we ask You for the Bedouins and other Arab tribes all across the Middle East and North Africa. Please make a way for the good news of Your salvation to reach them in a way they can truly understand. Tear down every wall that has kept the Bedouins from believing in You, and awaken their people groups to Truth. Awaken all of Gaza. Awaken Israel. Awaken every member of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Awaken every hostage, every survivor, every soldier, every terrorist, every Palestinian, every Jew, every family to Your love. Don’t let even one more lost person caught up in this earthly battle die without hearing the good news of the sacrifice You paid so we can be free. Replace death with new LIFE, violence with PEACE, hatred with LOVE, grief with gladness. Yes, Lord, what the enemy has meant for evil use to bring forth great good. Bring forth a mighty church planting movement that spreads throughout Israel and Palestine and all throughout the Middle East and beyond, with millions turning to Christ. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.

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The author of the Prayer Wall, Mikaela Vincent, and her husband are missionaries who have served nearly three decades in one of the most dangerous countries in the world (See the map at our Persecuted Church page). If you would like to help their ministry at the Prayer Wall and around the world, please consider giving a donation or shopping at Mikaela’s online bookstore.

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