"We will continue to support this country through our prayers," says Tysana Frédérique, a 37-year-old bank employee in Bethlehem, part of a group of 36 Mauritian pilgrims whose flight was cancelled due to the Israel-Hamas war. On the fourth day of the war between Israel and Hamas, which has already claimed thousands of lives, the Israeli army is stepping up air strikes on the Gaza Strip, in response to rocket fire from the Islamist Hamas movement, but also from southern Lebanon. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES