The recent attack on a church funeral in Jordan has been described as a massacre. Nine people were killed and dozens more were injured, CBN reports.
The funeral attended by 150 mourners was being held on Friday October 23, 2026 at St. George’s Greek Orthodox in the village of Hamoud, which is located in the Karak Governorate.
The service had just started when three gunmen emerged from the trees surrounding the church. As they entered the building and opened fire, they were heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” Israel365 News reports.
One survivor stated that, after several mourners had been wounded, one of the gunmen shot some of them again.
Mazen Al-Faraya, Jordan’s interior minister, described the incident as a “terrorist attack carried out by a group of extremists.”
Jordan’s Prime Minister Jafar Hassan added that the attack was rooted in a form of Islamic extremism connected to takfir, a belief system in which non-Muslims may be killed after being branded as infidels.
The Jordanian government has since arrested three—two brothers and their brother-in-law—in connection with the attack.
Jordan has a population of 11.5 million people, of whom only 2 percent are Christian. Karak has Jordan’s largest Christian population.
Attacks on Christians in Ethiopia
The very next day, Saturday, October 24, 2026, dozens of Orthodox Christians were killed when several armed men attacked Christian villages and churches in eastern Ethiopia. Several people were also taken hostage.
It appears to have been a coordinated attack.
Ethiopia’s Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project stated that ‘the attack is said to be religiously motivated and to have targeted Orthodox Christians.’
Ethiopia has a population of 139 million. Approximately 59 percent of the population is Christian. Most Ethiopian Christians belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which traces its roots back to the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch described in Acts 8.
However, Muslims are the majority religion in the Arsi zone, where the attacks took place.
Reports vary, but murderous rampage resulted in the deaths of approximately 50 people, including children and the elderly. Thirty-six people were buried in a mass grave at St. Raphael Church in the village of Chole after the assault.
Persecution of Christians is increasing around the world, and some are paying the ultimate price for their faith with their lives.
But out of these tragedies will emerge a new generation of Christians, who, as the Apostle John wrote, “did not love their life even when faced with death” (Revelation 12:11 NASB).
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