Hamas burns church, threatens Gaza Christians

The Islamic Hamas is turning up the heat on the few remaining Christians in Gaza:

Sunday, masked gunmen in Gaza City set fire to the Latin Church and went on a rampage inside the Rosary Sisters School on Sunday.

The attack was the first of its kind since Hamas took full control over the Gaza Strip last week…

Leaders of the Christian community in the Strip expressed deep concern over the fate of the Christians living under Hamas. They said most of them wanted to leave the Gaza out of fear for their lives. An estimated 2,500 Christians live in Gaza City.

[Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas condemned the attack as barbaric and despicable, and blamed Hamas militiamen. “The torching of the church is one of the fruits of the bloody coup that Hamas staged in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

Several Christian institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been targeted by masked gunmen over the past few months. Last April, a bookstore run by the Bible Society in the Gaza Strip was bombed, but no one was hurt.

A group calling itself the Huda (Guidance) Army Organization threatened to target all Christians living in the Gaza Strip following remarks against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that were made last year by Pope Benedict XVI.

“We will target all Crusaders in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a leaflet, “until the pope issues an official apology.”

“All centers belonging to Crusaders, including churches and institutions, will from now on be targeted,” it said. “We will even attack the Crusaders as they sit intoxicated in their homes.”

The Huda Army Organization said preparations had been completed “to strike at every Crusader and infidel on the purified land of Palestine “. — Jerusalem Post

Hamas has already done some ‘purification’ by bombing internet cafés, harassing women who are ‘improperly’ dressed, and tearing down statues — just like the Taliban.

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One Response to “Hamas burns church, threatens Gaza Christians”

  1. Shalom Freedman says:

    It is very difficult to be a Palestinian Christian. The Christians no matter how much more holy they are than the Pope , no matter how much more loyal to the cause of Palestinian nationalism are more and more rejected in Palestinian society. This is a further sign that the Islamists of Palestinians really don’t care about U.S. public opinion or Western favor. They care about what the Islamic world thinks.
    So good-bye Christians of Bethlehem and good- bye Christians of Gaza. Palestine is really not what is important for the Islamists . What is important is Dar- al- Islam conquering the Middle East and the wrold.