Our hearts are extremely saddened by the news from Gaza.
Once again, war is ravaging the area. Although my family and I moved out of Gaza several years ago, we lived there for nearly 20 years. We’ve walked down those narrow streets you see on TV. We have friends who live in some of those buildings that are now in ruins. Palestinian friends tell us that it has never been as bad as it is right now. Already hundreds have been killed and thousands wounded. There is no electricity. Water and basic foods are running low.
It is not safe to be in the street because of the constant bombing. With so many buildings damaged by the bombing, it is often not safe to be at home either. In this area of only 143 square miles, borders are tightly controlled by Israel and there is no place Palestinians can go to find safety. Bombs fall all night so no one can sleep. Adults are frightened. Children are terrified. Amazingly I’ve been able to contact friends by phone. One friend told me today, “My heart is shaking.”
One and a half million people live in Gaza. With a population density of almost 10,500 people per square mile, it is one of the most crowded places in the world. By contrast, in the year 2000, Jefferson County had a population density of about 595 people per square mile.
The vast majority of the people live in poverty. One-half million people live in refugee camps. Their ancestral homes are now in Israel. Recently it was reported that Gaza had the highest unemployment rate in the world. Nearly 95 percent of the factories have been closed as a result of Israel’s economic blockade (Haaretz.com, Dec. 7, 2008).
For most of the last year, basic goods have been in short supply. For months, electricity and water service have been sporadic.
I was there in July. Gasoline was $4 per gallon in America and $8 per gallon in Israel at the time. It was $20 per gallon in Gaza, was available only two days per week and required waiting in line for several hours in hopes of being able to buy a couple of gallons. In November, a friend wrote, “It is so difficult. We are hardly making it.”
Most people use butane gas to cook. The only gas available at the time was smuggled through the infamous tunnels from Egypt and cost $100 for a small tank. In the best of times, most people never could have afforded that.
I mention all this to emphasize the fact that when the bombs started falling Dec. 27, the people of Gaza were already facing a humanitarian crisis.
Gaza’s Christians are caught in the middle. Palestinians are so associated with Islam that many Americans are surprised to hear that some Palestinians are Christian. We’re often asked, “When did they convert to Christianity?”
In fact, Palestinian Christians consider themselves the direct descendents of the first church in Jerusalem. There are more Christians in the West Bank but only about 2,000 in Gaza. That is only about 0.1 percent of the population. Palestinian Christians have a rich heritage.
The current Orthodox church, the traditional denomination, was built in the 14th century. Baptists began working in Gaza in the early 1950s and established a church in 1958.
In the years I lived in Gaza, the Muslims and Christians lived peacefully together. In the last couple of years, that has changed.
The Bible society office was burned in the spring of 2007, and Rami Ayyad, a member of the Baptist church and manager of the Bible society bookshop, was killed for his faith in October 2007 (The Alabama Baptist, Oct. 18, 2007). Many Baptists from Alabama wrote letters of encouragement to the church after Rami’s murder. Those letters were greatly appreciated.
Other Christians were also threatened, and some received special permission from Israel to relocate temporarily to the West Bank. Those who remained behind have continued to be harassed from time to time by Islamic groups. This is just an added difficulty in an already stressful situation.
For the average person in Gaza, it is impossible to leave.
At Christmas and Easter, Israel allows some Christians to go to Bethlehem or Jerusalem. When the war started, there were a number of Christian families outside Gaza.
There are still 45 families who remain in the West Bank and now cannot return.
One family still in Gaza are Elias, Miriam and their four children, ages 8 to 14. Elias and the two older children went to Bethlehem at Christmas, but Miriam was denied permission to leave, so she and the two younger children stayed behind.
When there was a break in the fighting after the first two days, Elias and the boys returned to Gaza. I’ve been able to talk to him a couple of times. The first time we talked, the building next to Elias’ family’s had just been struck by a bomb. Miriam’s brother and his family live in that building, but they were with extended family in another part of town.
The next time we talked, Elias told me that everyone in his family’s building is staying on the ground floor. (The building is about 10 floors high with four apartments per floor.) All the men sleep in one room and the women in another. Miriam had been able to buy a sack of flour before the war started, and all the neighbors are sharing whatever they have and cooking together.
Elias and Miriam are the only Christians in their building. Pray for Elias and Miriam as they suffer along with their neighbors. Ask for God’s protection and that they will be able to be a strong witness to their neighbors in the face of extreme hardship.
Pray for our friends who remain there. Thank God that most telephone lines work at least occasionally. Pray that the believers can be an encouragement to one another. Ask God for His protection on the believing community.
Pray that Baptist Global Response will be able to minister to the people of Gaza as soon as the fighting ceases and foreigners are allowed into Gaza.
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