One of the more remarkable stories to come out of the latest Israel-Hamas war are reports of recent miracles being witnessed and experienced by Israel Defense Forces (idf) personnel.

Jerusalem-based news agency Israel Today translated a Hebrew account of an Iron Dome air defense operator who has reported witnessing a miracle. According to the operator’s account of the events, Israel’s air defense system Iron Dome twice failed to destroy an incoming Gaza missile that was going to kill a lot of innocent civilians until at that very last moment a major east wind pushed it into the sea. The operator assigns credit for the gusty east wind to the “hand of God.”

Israel’s “Iron Dome” is a missile air defense system that has a 90 percent success rate of shooting projectiles aimed at sensitive targets out of the air. So the operator was shocked at its failure to destroy the Hamas missile. Israel Today recorded the Iron Dome air defense operator’s account of what happened:

A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died. We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident. Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that … sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, “There is a God!” I witnessed this miracle with my own eyes. It was not told or reported to me. I saw the hand of God send that missile into the sea.

It isn’t just this idf Iron Dome operator that has noticed what he perceives to be supernatural intervention: so has a Hamas commander.

At the very last moment, a major east wind pushed the missile into the sea.

In a July 18 Jewish Telegraph article, contributor Barbara Ordman wrote, “As one of the [Hamas terrorist commanders] from Gaza was reported to say when asked why they couldn’t aim their rockets more effectively, ‘We do aim them, but their God changes their path in midair’” (emphasis added). The Telegraph carried the headline, “Their God changes the path of our rockets in midair, said a terrorist.” You can see a photo of the remarkable newspaper headline here.

As explained by editor in chief Gerald Flurry’s article “Israel: When the Miracle Victories Ended,” Israel has needed and has received many miracles to exist as a free and independent state. But the miracles that helped secure those unlikely national victories have ended.

Notwithstanding, while God has removed His national blessing from the tiny nation of Israel, He does continue to show that if individuals will look to God for help, He will. God is yet still listening for anyone who will call out to Him.

Is God giving Israel special protection today?

Israeli Givati Brigade commander Col. Ofer Winter believes so. On July 9, the eve of the latest Israeli ground offensive, Operation Protective Edge, Colonel Winter dispatched a letter to his troops that quoted scriptures and made other references to the the Old Testament.

I am relying on you, on each and every one of you, to do your duty in this spirit, the spirit of Jewish warriors who go out in in front of the camp. The spirit which is called “Givati.” I lift up my eyes to heaven and say with you, “Shma Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad.” May Hashem, the G-d of Israel, bring success in our mission in which we stand to do battle for the sake of your people Israel against the enemy who curses your name. In the name of the warriors of the idf generally, and in particular, in the name of the warriors and commanders of our Brigade, may Hashem act and fulfill in us that which it says in the pasuk, “Hashem your G-d goes out with you to do battle with your enemies for you to save you” [Devarim 20:4], and let us say Amen.

We do aim [the missiles], but their God changes their path in mid-air. Hamas commander

When the contents of the letter began to make the rounds in the press, Winter drew harsh criticism for mixing religion with state military affairs. (If Israel’s ancient King David were still alive, he would be run out of town, perhaps labeled a psychopathic warmonger.)

Writing on Facebook, journalist Kobi Niv chastized Winter for his “clumsy language, which ridiculously combines recitations from the military and the religion but also the fact that on our part (not on their part; on our part) the wars against the Palestinians have turned from a national dispute to a holy war.”

Winter brushed aside criticism, explaining that those that condemn him don’t know “what fighting spirit is,” and went on to exhort the nation to concentrate on studying the Torah because it offers the nation its best protection. And according to Winter, God has powerfully protected him and his brigade in the form of a stunning miracle.

According to a July 31 Times of Israel news story reporting on the events, Winter’s brigade was planning to launch a surprise attack on an objective under the cover of darkness but, as it happened, as they were approaching their positions, dawn light threatened to expose them. “Suddenly,” Winter recounts, “a cloud protected us.”

According to the colonel, a fog descended around the brigade, obscuring them until they achieved their objective. Winter described the fog as, “Clouds of glory”—an allusion to Old Testament imagery.

These remarkable stories offer refreshing light in a world otherwise descending into sorrowful darkness. And if we take these reports at face value, they offer us, and the world, a glimpse into the enduring mercy of God.

The Prophet Isaiah once said, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” There is soon coming a time when God will not hear and not be found! You need to know why—and can learn more about this tragedy in our booklet Ezekiel: The End-Time Prophet. As the Prophet Isaiah also wrote elsewhere: Call on God while He still can be found—while He is yet still near.

He is still near!