Biblical and Quranic narratives to not look back. The following morning, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with a shower of fiery stones from the sky. Lot's wife looked back to see the burning city and was turned into a pillar of salt. The story continues further after the destruction of the twin cities, with Lot leaving Zoar (where he had fled for refuge) with his two daughters to live in a cave. Fearing that all the men were dead, the daughters decided that in order to 'preserve the seed of their father' and procreate, they must have sexual intercourse with him; they decide to
Operation Pillar of Defense had ended. According to Human Rights Watch, both sides violated the laws of war during the fighting. Although the official English name of the operation is "Pillar of Defense", the Hebrew name translates as "Pillar of Cloud". Eytan Buchman, head of the IDF's North American media desk, explained that this usage refers to the Pillar of Cloud in the Bible that protected the Israelites during the Exodus and guided them to the Promised Land (). The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament elaborate on the story, specifying that the Pillar of Cloud shielded the Israelites from the Egyptians' arrows and