Palestinian police temporarily 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 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.
"The immediate result of the (Hamas) takeover will be probably less violence because there is not as much fighting currently. But in the long run it could make life more difficult for believers," said a Southern Baptist worker from Alabama in the Middle East who works among Arabs. "We know, though, that the people at Gaza Baptist Church are committed to continuing ministry."
Despite everything, Massad said, his church continues to "experience the power of God’s presence, His peace and love." (ABP)
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