The Two Miracles of Nature Some Israelis Say Protected Them During the Gaza Fighting

Israelis have reported experiencing two miracles of nature which protected them during the fighting with Hamas in Gaza.

Col. Ofer Winter, an Israel Defense Forces brigade commander who is a religious Jew, attributed the way his soldiers were protected in Gaza to a divine miracle.

In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Mishpacha, Winter described the unusual occurrence that might have come straight out of the Bible. The Times of Israel reported:

He said that a predawn raid that was intended to make use of the dark as concealment was delayed, forcing the soldiers to move toward their objective as the sun was about to rise. The soldiers were in danger of being revealed in the light but, Winter recalled, a heavy fog descended to cover their movements until the objective was achieved.

“Suddenly a cloud protected us,” he said, make a reference to the clouds that the Bible says protected the Israelites as they wandered in the desert. “Clouds of glory.”

Only when the soldiers were in a secure position did the fog dissipate, he said.

“It really was a fulfillment of the verse ‘For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to give you victory,’” Winter said, referring to Deuteronomy.

The experience was also reminiscent of the pillar of cloud that protected the Israelites as they escaped from Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, as described in the book of Exodus.

A second miracle was reported by a group of religious Jews who in early July, right before the fighting broke out, traveled to southern Israel to harvest wheat in advance of the biblical sabbatical year. According to the biblical mandate, Jews are supposed to allow the land of Israel to rest during the entire final year of the seven-year agricultural cycle which begins next month and is observed on Israeli farms. That means no planting or harvesting occurs for the year.

Aharon Samet told the Israeli radio show "Upside Down" that a great miracle occurred thanks to the fact that they had to harvest more wheat than usual to comply with the biblical mandate.

“This year we are before the sabbatical year, and we need to harvest wheat for two years. We plowed the land up and down looking for wheat that was sown late what with the rains that fell late this year,” Samet said. “On Kibbutz Sufa on the Gaza border we found an entire field that was sown in mid-January, which is considered very unusual.”

They harvested the wheat and didn’t give it another thought.

Image source: Israel Defense Forces

Only weeks later when the fighting between Israel and Hamas was at its peak did Samet and his friends realize the significance of their actions.

On July 17, 13 Hamas militants infiltrated from Gaza via a tunnel into Israel at the exact spot near Kibbutz Sufa where the men had been farming.

The terrorists were shocked to discover that their natural camouflage – the giant wheat field that they were counting on --had disappeared.

The now empty field allowed IDF surveillance to spot them as they emerged from their holes and to repel their attack by dropping a bomb on them from above.

“Many lives were saved by the grace of Heaven,” the Israeli radio station Kol Hai commented.

Of the events he experienced, brigade commander Winter concluded, “When a person is in a life-threatening situation he connects with his deepest internal truths, and when that happens, even the biggest atheist meets God.”

Soldiers experience so many miracles that “it is hard not to believe [in God],” Winter said.