Caught in the middle of the Hamas-Israel war, and with opposing orders from the combatants, 1.1 million civilians in northern Gaza must decide whether safety means leaving their homes. Our reporter had to make the agonizing choice.

Hamas is believed to be holding more than 150 hostages in Gaza after Saturday’s attack. Finding them and securing their release poses an unprecedented challenge for Israel, which is poised for a major ground offensive.

Several universities drew criticism this week for muted responses to controversial student statements about the Hamas attack on Israel. Many students say they feel empathy for all and want to learn more about the conflict. 

If one European nation has stood by Ukraine in its war with Russia, it is Poland. But that partnership is under strain as Poland nears crucial national elections and parties try to take advantage of voters’ frustrations.

By sending a spacecraft on a journey of 2 billion miles, scientists hope to learn something about the core of our own planet. NASA’s mission to a metal-rich asteroid is about curiosity and creativity.

As war in Ukraine grinds into its 20th month, families cope with its fallout while trying to resume something like normal life. Our writer checked in on a tentative return to school. She joined our podcast to talk about the assignment. 

The hellish violence in Israel and Gaza has stirred many interfaith groups around the world – especially those of Jews and Muslims – to reach for a touch of heaven. Each in its own way has used dialogue, shared action, or prayer to heal the tense emotions around the war. One poignant response was a multireligious service on Friday in Poland, the country where all six Nazi death camps were built during the Holocaust.

More than a hundred people gathered in Warsaw’s Castle Square to pray for peace. The service was organized by the chief rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, who has helped rebuild the Jewish community in Poland. “May the shared God of Jews, Christians, and Muslims be willing to hear our prayer,” read the invitation to the service.

During the Holocaust, one form of Jewish resistance was a reliance on prayer, or tefillah. Such moments of spirituality prevented the Nazis from breaking the faith of many Jews, as Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor, wrote in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning.”

Since the Soviet empire collapsed, Poland has built a tradition of interfaith harmony. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, has held an annual Day of Judaism to improve interfaith dialogue and remind Jews and Christians of their shared roots. Rabbi Schudrich has worked tirelessly to build bridges with leaders of other faiths.

In Israel this week, many Israeli Arabs and Bedouins worked with Jews to calm tensions or, in the case of the Bedouins, rescue Jews in areas hit by Hamas fighters. In the Asian nation of Azerbaijan, where the majority of people practice Islam, Muslims left thousands of roses at the Israeli Embassy in Baku.

In the United States, an Oct. 11 commentary in USA Today offered a specific prayer of petition to end the violence:

“We pray for the healthy return for all Israeli children, families and others taken hostage in the Gaza Strip as we pray for the cessation of collective punishment upon innocent Palestinian families,” wrote Rami Nashashibi, executive director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago, and Rabbi Andrea London of Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston, Illinois.

Prayer has a spiritual basis, as the late chief rabbi of Britain, Jonathan Sacks, often pointed out. He was a global leader in promoting religion as the solution for interreligious hate. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, he wrote, there is a spiritual force in the first book of the Bible when God says, “Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.”

If people of faith believe that, Rabbi Sacks stated, “the greatest religious challenge is: Can I see God’s image in someone who is not in my image – whose colour, class, culture or creed is different from mine?”