Source: www.persecution.org
Date: March 8, 2023
The Gaza Strip (International Christian Concern) – Gaza’s Christian community is struggling to survive after years of steady decline in numbers. Only an estimated 1,000 Christians remain in the Gaza Strip, an area of more than 2 million residents and that is third most densely populated political unit in the world. Christians are exiting the territory due to a combination of factors including a squeezing Israeli blockade, economic woes, and internal pressures faced from radical Islamist factions in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Christians of all denominations have played an important and out-sized influence on healthcare, education and business in the Gaza Strip for centuries. Today, among evangelicals, only one known Protestant church continues, it’s leadership struggling to lead its flock ever since the Bible Society’s Christian bookstore’s manager was martyred in 2007 by local Islamist militants; this was followed by an exodus of church leaders. The Greek (which make up most of Gaza’s Christians in numbers) and Catholic churches face daily pressures from the ruling administration of Hamas’ Islamization efforts while at the same time suffering from the negative economic and restricted movement effects that come with the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Pray for the church in Gaza, that they would remain strong under the daily pressures of living there. Christians are feeling pressure from all sides and are in many ways cut off from fellowshipping with and being supported by the wider body of Christ.
HOW TO PRAY: Pray for strength and unity for the Christians who remain. Pray for them to shine the light of Christ in the region. Pray for connection for isolated believers in the Gaza Strip.