By Ryan Jones
“...all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me...”
(John 15:21)
There is perhaps no place in the world today where it is more perilous to share the Gospel, where Bible-believing Evangelical Christians are more persecuted for their faith than in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The tragic death of Rami Ayyad, a 29-year-old husband to a pregnant wife and father of two, was the first martyr for the gospel in Gaza according to Palestinian sources. His death is the latest example of the mounting danger faced by believers in Gaza, particularly those courageous enough to share the love of Jesus among their Moslem neighbors. Ayyad was found some 12 hours after he was kidnapped with two gunshot wounds, one to the back of the head, stab wounds and with a blow to the head.
When Hamas seized control of Gaza in a blood-soaked coup last June, several of its leaders announced that an era of more stringent Islamic rule had arrived, and that local adherents of other faiths, particularly Christians, would either have to fully submit to Allah’s dictates or leave.
Evangelical Christians in Gaza number in the mere hundreds, and most are wary of speaking to outsiders about their trials and efforts on the Lord’s behalf for fear of retribution from their Moslem overlords. Most who were not born as Christians and who converted to faith in Jesus only later in life refuse even to shed the title “Moslem,” and are referred to by their Christian brothers as “Moslem Background Believers,” or MBBs.
In an interview with Israel Today, Pastor Hanna Massad of the Gaza Baptist Church spoke of Ayyad’s final hours.