(NewsNation) — The war in Israel has fueled fury, fear anger and dissension, both in the Middle East and among Americans.

The head of the Southern Baptist Convention, Pastor Bart Barber, hopes Americans can soon “rediscover something about love and trust and confidence” to unite again.

“A lot of people are fearful in our world, and I think we’re in the adolescence of learning what to do with the internet, which is a medium that is so easily used to stoke people’s fears and to pump up people’s anger,” Barber said Tuesday on “CUOMO.” “When we live in a time where 46% of adolescents are persistently depressed or anxious, that’s tinder ready to burn when somebody knows how to use it to create anger out of that fear.”

The Southern Baptist Convention has had a ministry presence in Gaza for decades, including in hospitals. As Israel continues its advance into Gaza City in the war against Hamas, Palestinian civilians have increasingly become caught in the crossfire.

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The civilian death toll, which the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry says has eclipsed 10,000, has prompted calls for a cease-fire that have been rejected by Israel.

Reflecting on the war and its impact, Barber said the actions Israel has taken against Hamas seem to be proportional to the threat the country faces.

Southern Baptists “want to love everybody and serve everybody but also recognize that that sometimes nations have to take violent action to prevent violence,” Barber said. “(But) nobody’s writing a blank check in my congregation for Israel to do anything that they want to do. It’s just that right now, we see that Israel’s actions that they’re taking seem to be actions that are proportional to the threat that they face.”