The Palestinian Bible Society is asking for prayers after being threatened with a bomb attack on its Bible shop in Gaza and with the possibility of the withdrawal of all legal rights to a presence in the Palestinian Territories.

Last week the co-owner of the building where the shop is located demanded that the Bible Society vacate the premises. He claims to have received a threat from a militant Islamic group in Gaza to blow the building up if the shop remains. He is also taking the Society to court in an attempt to have both its ownership of the shop and its legal right to a presence in the Palestinian Territories withdrawn. The Bible Society is contesting this action.

Last Friday (25 July), an Islamic militant was killed while planting a bomb by the door of a Christian-owned internet café in Gaza City. In a statement, the Bible Society invited Christians around the world "to lift up their Christian family in Gaza before God in prayer so that they remain strong and faithful in the face of persecution."

Last week’s threats follow the tragic events of last October when the manager of the Bible Society bookshop in Gaza, Rami Ayyad, was kidnapped and killed; since that time the shop has been closed. In April 2007, the bookshop was one of three targets of bomb attacks in Gaza City.

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Contact: Errol Pike, The Bible Society in New Zealand
Phone 0800 424 253 ext 9843 or