Gaza Troubles

Open Doors’ Carl Moeller says Hamas’ takeover brought weeks of violence to an end. But having Hamas in charge may not necessarily be a good thing. The social and economic infrastructure has totally broken down. “Hamas will rule in Gaza, and if that’s the case, Gaza will be cut off from any aid from the outside world. We know that there are also Christians locked into that same place, there in Gaza. We’re praying for them, and we are asking the Christian community to provide resources.”

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Moeller says there’s a few hundred evangelical believers trapped in Gaza. These people are caught in the crossfire, without supplies, unable to leave, but determined to share the hope of Christ. “They’re caught between radical Islam on the one side and Israel on the other, and they’re trying to follow after the Lord’s admonition to be peacemakers in the middle of that violent place.”

Evangelical Christians are even fewer.

“We are a minority of minorities,” Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church, told Israel Today. “It is really difficult. The Christian community here is 2,000 including Catholic, Greek Orthodox and evangelical Christians.”

Gaza Baptist Church, the only evangelical church in the Strip, ministers to 150 to 200 people.

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Massad said living in Gaza is like being in a big prison. Many people have died because they haven’t been able get over the border in time for proper medical treatment in Israel or Egypt.

“The people are under siege from the sky, land and sea,” he said, adding that medical supplies and food are often delayed getting to the Strip. “Unemployment is 72 percent. Militant Muslims are against us, and some Christians are not with us because we are evangelical.”

Not long ago terrorists carried through on a threat to bomb the Gaza Bible Society where Massad’s wife is a director. Now the church itself has been threatened.

“There is a small militant group that hates everything Western and Christian, and in their minds, they are trying to clean up the city,” Massad said. “They are a narrow-minded group, and the government is unable to control it.”

But the Gaza church isn’t playing victim to the circumstances. Instead the Christians are running clinics, libraries, bringing humanitarian aid to the needy and carrying on meeting. They meet openly at the church.

“One thing that strikes me is that you don’t hear negative language from them,” Labib Madanat, executive director of the Palestinian Bible Society, told us. “Their language is positive, a language of mission: ‘What is my role as a believer; what can I do in this situation?'”

The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in “missionary activity” will be “dealt with harshly.”

The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group.

“I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza,” said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a “military wing” to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations school in Gaza last month, after the school allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in that attack.

“The situation has now changed 180 degrees in Gaza,” said Abu Saqer, speaking from Gaza yesterday.

“Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public,” Abu Asqer told WND.

“Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped,” he said. “If it goes on, we’ll attack these things very harshly.”