Readers -

I wrote plenty about this years ago.

in Acts 8, Philip is instructed by the Spirit to go out to a certain road -

Acts 8:26
"And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go
toward the south unto the way that goeth down (descends, Strong's
2597g katabaino) from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert."

When there, he meets an court official Ethiopian eunuch reading
Isaiah. After preaching Jesus to him, and baptizing him ....

Acts 8:39
"And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord
caught away (Strong's 726g Harpazo) Philip, that the eunuch saw him no
more: and he went on his way rejoicing."

That's the same 726g word and the same 2597g word as in 1
Thessalonians 4:16 & 17, where the living are "caught up" (seized
violently) to heaven to meet the (descended) Lord in the air with the
already resurrected dead.

I always wondered if this Acts/Philip account was a "type" of that
event. Jerusalem and Gaza being tied together in some special fashion.

like a war?

remember, Gaza was one stronghold of the Anakims (race of giants).

Joshua 11:22
"There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of
Israel: only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, there remained."