Gaza Christians Fearful After Murder of Bible Society Worker
By: Administrative Account | Source: CNSNews.com
October 8, 2007 8:47AM EST

By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
October 08, 2007

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - The small Christian community in the Gaza Strip is in shock and many Christians may seriously consider leaving after the murder Sunday of a Bible Society worker, possibly for missionary activity, Christian sources said.

The body of Rami Ayyad, 30, was found early Sunday morning near the Palestinian Bible Society Teacher's Bookshop that he ran in Gaza. The Bible Society had been attacked earlier this year.

Ayyad, who had received death threats over his Christian activity, had been stabbed and shot to death. He leaves behind a pregnant wife and two young children,

The Palestinian Bible Society said he had been kidnapped on Saturday evening by people who had followed him home a day earlier.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing. Islamic extremists have carried out numerous attacks in the Gaza Strip against Christian and Western concerns in recent years.

Gaza's Interior Ministry, which is run by Hamas, was quoted by the Associated Press as calling the murder a "grave crime" that would not "pass without punishment."

"It is very difficult. We are in shock," Pastor Hanna Massad of the Gaza Baptist Church told Cybercast News Service.

Although there have been bomb attacks against members of the Christian community in the past, this was the first time a Christian had been abducted and killed, he said.

Christians don't know what to expect next and whether there may be other killings, he said.

"As Christians we know where he's at," Massad said of Ayyad. "He's in a better place [with God]." Nonetheless, he said, "it's painful for us."

Massad voiced concern that the killing could accelerate an exodus of Christians. There are about 2,500 Christians in Gaza, living among more than one million Muslims.

"Many people already want to leave" but are unable to do so, he said. Gaza is under a security closure imposed by the Israeli government because of the takeover by the Hamas terrorist group, and that makes it impossible to leave except for humanitarian reasons.

Massad predicted that some Christians may take advantage of an expected loosening of restrictions at Christmas to leave.

"The Christians in Gaza are in tremendous fear for their lives," said another Christian source, who asked not to be identified out of concern for repercussions against the local Christian community.

"This is ethnic cleansing at its worst," the source charged.

He urged the West to speak out against the persecution of Palestinian Christians, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, which is under the control of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction. (In the West Bank city of Bethlehem, a Christian man was stabbed and seriously wounded last week, the Jerusalem Post reported.)

Christians in Gaza have been under periodic attacks for more than a year, but tensions in the community have been rising since the violent Hamas takeover in June, despite a Hamas pledge to protect Christians, said Christians living there.

Shortly after the Hamas takeover, a church and Christian school were vandalized, and crosses, Bibles and pictures of Jesus were destroyed. Two weeks ago, a masked man beat and robbed an elderly Christian woman in Gaza, accusing her of being an "infidel."

In earlier incidents, two pipe bombs exploded at the Bible Society offices, and pamphlets left at the scene threatened the landlord for dealing with "infidels."

Last April the Gaza Bible Society, Internet cafes and music stores were bombed. An Islamic extremist group was blamed for the series of attacks, which were seen as targeting Western or non-Islamic culture.

See earlier stories:
Gaza Christians Living Under Growing Islamic Threat (Aug. 16, 2007)
Gaza Bible Society Surprised By Bomb Attack (Apr. 16, 2007)

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