Donations from U.S. evangelical Christians to a Jewish charity are helping fund aid to victims of Hamas’ terrorist attack on southern Israel this weekend.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, headquartered in Chicago, has committed $5 million in “immediate needs relief” and is evaluating further needs amid the conflict, a spokeswoman said.

The charity group on Sunday moved orphans from the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, near the Gaza border, to another orphanage in central Israel, the spokeswoman said. The group had evacuated the orphans last year from Zhytomyr, Ukraine.

The group has established an emergency response center in the city of Ramla in central Israel, where families can work with authorities to search for missing relatives. It has provided flak jackets, flashlights and other items to municipalities and first responders while assisting evacuees from the region.

Yael Eckstein, president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, said his organization began planning humanitarian aid in the hours following the outbreak of hostilities on Saturday.

While much of the effort is focused on the south of Israel, the group also is watching Israel’s northern border, where Hezbollah militants have launched attacks.

“Right now, we are looking at what will happen in the north, as Hezbollah engages with artillery and rocket fire with Israel forces. How much this will escalate could magnify the crisis to an even greater degree,” Ms. Eckstein said in a statement.

The organization said it is supplying “more bomb shelters, ambulances, and additional food and medicine for bomb shelters” in the north of Israel.

The group also said it distributed hundreds of hot meals to soldiers along the northern border, in association with the Beit Batya soup kitchen. A fortified vehicle recently donated by the fellowship was used in the deliveries.

In a related development, several aid organizations reported shortages of food for military personnel.

Israeli charity Yad Ezra V’Shulamit reported receiving telephone “calls from soldiers asking to send food and drink immediately.”

According to the food relief charity, one soldier texted: “I was called out for army service on [Sabbath]. I came here last night only to find that there are no provisions — nothing. The Army was caught off guard by this invasion and is totally unprepared for us. Thousands of us called up for battle with no food or drink. Please send whatever you can.”

• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.