Ayyad ran the Teacher's Bookshop, which is a ministry of the Palestinian Bible Society and the Gaza Baptist Church. Ayyad was accused by area Muslims of spreading the Gospel.

Medical officials in the Hamas-controlled territory said he had been stabbed and shot. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh condemned the killing and said the Islamist movement “would not allow anyone to sabotage” Muslim-Christian relations.

Gaza's 2,500 Christians, who live among 1.5 million Muslims, have increasingly become a target of Muslim aggression since Hamas wrested control of Gaza last June.

Last month, an elderly Christian woman was attacked and her home robbed by a masked man who referred to her as an “infidel.”

Even prior to the Hamas coup, Ayyad's bookstore and the Palestinian Bible Society headquarters were the targets of frequent attacks, including a bombing earlier this year that severely damaged the Bible Society.

Dan Wooding is an award winning British journalist now living in Southern California with his wife Norma. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He was, for ten years, a commentator, on the UPI Radio Network in Washington, DC. Wooding is the author of some 42 books, the latest of which is his autobiography, "From Tabloid to Truth", which is published by Theatron Books. To order a copy, go to www.fromtabloidtotruth.com. danjuma1@aol.com.