GAZA CITY, Palestine (ABP) — Palestinian police have seized a Baptist church in the Gaza Strip for the second time in recent months, the church's pastor said June 15.
Hanna Massad, pastor of the Gaza Baptist Church, said Gaza's Baptists are safe despite turmoil in the area, which led to the militant Hamas party virtually taking over the thin strip of land on Israel's southwestern edge. The area has more than 1.2 million people, many of whom live in refugee camps.
“In the last few days, the Palestinian Authority Police took our church building as a watching point,” Massad wrote in an e-mail. He said the church attempted to deny the police request to take the building, but officers broke in. Massad later discovered that a computer and other equipment, valued at about $4,000, had been taken.
He also said he had to stop an evening worship service on June 10 due to shooting nearby. The apartment of a church member was bombed as well, slightly injuring the person, Massad said.
Christians in the Gaza part of Palestine have endured continued persecution during the recent escalation of violence between Hamas and its more moderate rival party, Fatah. Fatah and its head, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have the support of the United States.
However, Hamas received a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament during elections in 2006. The two factions have been fighting ever since, with the conflict recently escalating and Hamas forces displacing Abbas from his Gaza City offices. He had fled to the West Bank, the other part of Palestine on the east side of Israel.
Despite everything, Massad said, his church continues to “experience the power of God's presence, his peace and love.”
Massad, a native Palestinian, has been pastor of Gaza Baptist Church since 1987. He was ordained at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and served at First Baptist Church of Azusa, Calif. He returned to Gaza in 1999.
He receives support from International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches USA.
— Marlon Millner is a writer for International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches USA.
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