As conflict threatened to plunge Palestine into civil war Feb. 3, a Palestinian Baptist pastor sent out an impassioned plea to supporters around the world to pray for his church, which authorities have seized in the fighting.
Hanna Massad, pastor of Gaza Baptist Church in Gaza City, sent an e-mail requesting prayer from Baptist colleagues and supporters.
He said that on the evening of Feb. 2, Palestinian Authority (PA) police seized the church’s six-story building in central Gaza as an observation post.
The police are controlled by the relatively moderate Fatah political party, which has struggled with the Islamist Hamas party since Palestinian parliamentary elections put Hamas into power last year.
In December 2006, the conflict erupted into open violence in the densely populated Gaza Strip.
Since then, nearly 100 Palestinians have died in the fighting.
Massad said authorities view the church facility — dedicated in November 2006 — as a vital position because of its location adjacent to the main police station in Gaza City.
"If the PA police shoot any gunfire at the Hamas people from our building, Hamas will shoot back, and this will cause lot of damage to the building, as it happened once before," Massad wrote.
He was referring to a similar incident in May, when police seized the building as a sniper post.
According to American Baptist International Ministries, Gaza Baptist’s facility has worship space and the Gaza Strip’s largest public library. It includes guest quarters for volunteers who serve at the church and related ministries, and it will soon house one of the area’s few breast-cancer clinics.
Massad said Gaza City was so perilous Feb. 3 that he could not leave his home to assess the situation at the church.
"The situation in Gaza [is] very dangerous," he wrote. "We [are] not able to leave our homes much. This is the worse [sic] situation we ever went through in Gaza."
While authorities declared a cease-fire Feb. 4, there is no guarantee it will last any longer than several previous truces made since December.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah’s leader, held peace talks Feb. 6 in Saudi Arabia with his Hamas counterpart, Khaled Mashaal.
According to The Associated Press, the groups signed a power-sharing accord Feb. 8 aimed at ending months of bloodshed, agreeing that Hamas would head a new coalition government that would "respect" past peace agreements with Israel.
However, Israel and the United States have demanded the new government explicitly renounce violence, recognize Israel and agree to uphold past peace accords.
"In terms of what the outcome of those discussions look like … I think we’ll just have to see," said State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey.
Open Doors, a United States-based Christian group that calls attention to persecution of Christians around the globe, issued a press release Feb. 5 about the church’s situation.
In the statement, the group’s president, Carl Moeller, decried the situation.
"Christians and Muslims in Gaza are caught in the cross fire. And it’s getting worse," he said. “Please pray with me for Pastor Massad. It is so vital that the Gaza Baptist Church remains open so ministry can be carried out to those who are even now more marginalized,” Moeller said.
According to the group, Massad had to cancel the Feb. 4 morning worship service at Gaza Baptist because of the tense security situation.
But a Southern Baptist from Alabama who was in Gaza Feb. 7 said the regular schedule of worship services and other activities have resumed.
“The situation in Gaza is calm,” he said. “Friends that I talked to were hopeful that the agreement reached in Saudi Arabia will lead to peace between Fatah and Hamas. The situation last weekend was very frightening and dangerous for all.”
So far, no shots have been fired by police stationed on top of the building, he said.
”Please pray that there will not be any gunfire around the church building and God will protect this building for his glory,” Massad wrote in his e-mail.
“Please pray for wisdom for the leaders in Gaza to stop this evil fight.” (ABP, TAB)
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