G a z a / B e t h l e h e m – The only Baptist church building in the Gaza Strip, located in Gaza City, has been damaged slightly by an Israeli attack. The target was a police station located across the road, which was totally destroyed. A church member living in the neighbourhood reported by telephone that God had protected the church centre – only a number of windows had been broken. The eyewitness contradicted international press reports stating that the building had been destroyed on the very first day of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. But even before the attack, the congregation’s spiritual work had nearly come to a standstill. Seven families, including the one of Pastor Hanna Massad, had fled to the West Bank or to foreign countries after they had been repeatedly threatened by militant Islamist extremists. Due to pressure stemming from the ruling, radical Islamist Hamas movement, only several hundred Christians continue to live among the Gaza Strip’s 1,5 million residents.

Alex Awad, the Baptist pastor and Dean of Bethlehem Bible College, sharply criticised the Israeli offensive. He does not doubt that the Qassam rockets fired into Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip have caused suffering and anxiety. Israel does have the right to defend itself. Yet in the new “unequal conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel has, as usual, overdone it.” Awad wrote in a letter circulated via the Internet: “An eye for an eye does not satisfy them. It is more like one hundred eyes for one eye, and one hundred teeth for one tooth.” Awad recalled the Israeli attack on Lebanon in June 2006 when Israel blanketed the country with cluster bombs declared illegal by the international community. These bombs are still killing innocent civilians there. Awad continues: “What troubles me most in this current war is that most of the victims are average people, men, women and children, struggling just to survive under the extreme and harsh conditions that the Israeli siege has created.” For 40 years, the Gaza Strip has been suffering under Israeli occupation. The Israelis have converted Gaza into “the largest open-air prison in the world”.

Awad proposed that Israel place its reliance on negotiations instead of force. This would include “implementing UN resolutions, ending the occupation of the West Bank and opening the borders of the Gaza Strip.” He added: “The rise of Hamas and militancy in Gaza is directly related to the vacuum Israel and the United States have created by dragging their feet in never-ending and fruitless peace negotiations with moderate Palestinians. As long as Israel continues to place obstacles in the path of the peace process, and as long as the US continues to allow it to do so, we can expect new outbursts of violence in the Middle East.”

Awad called for prayer for the civilians on both sides, adding that political leaders must also strive for a political solution. Christians should cover their elected leaders with “a barrage” of letters “calling for an end to this human tragedy”.