Baptists around the world are uniting in prayer for God’s intervention in the conflict in Lebanon as diplomats remain divided over the timing of a ceasefire and Beirut takes another pounding.

Baptists in Lebanon called on fellow believers around the world to pray for peace in their region as Israeli jets launched an air assault on 70 targets in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah’s Beirut stronghold overnight, according to a spokeswoman for the Israeli army.

Nabil Costa (Beirut), director of the Baptist-allied Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD), condemned the violence: “Innocent civilians have lost their lives and considerable destruction of the country’s infrastructure has occurred.”

According to Costa, Baptists from Atlanta, Georgia, and Forney, Texas, are among some of the foreign Christian workers who have remained in the area despite Israel’s bombing campaign.