Thousands of books were reportedly burnt in the ensuing fire, Israeli radio reported. The
YMCA in Gaza also operates a gym and a wedding hall.
News reports said the gunmen laid a second explosive device near a computer in the library
but it failed to detonate. Two security guards on the scene were not able to block the intruders; they were taken by them from the YMCA and later released in the northern Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post newspaper reported on its Website. There were no reports of
injuries.
It comes amid growing concerns about reports of attacks against Palestinian Christians, which observers say has worsened since the militant Hamas group took power of the Gaza Strip last June. There is also concern among Christians that authorities are unable, or unwilling, to find those responsible for attacks, BosNewsLife learned.
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MURDER UNSOLVED
The murder of 29-year-old Rami Ayyad, the manager of Palestinian Bible Society bookshop in
Gaza has still not been solved. Four months after he was found murdered, his Christian widow Pauline Ayyad gave birth in Gaza City last week to a healthy little girl.
However, Christians in the West Bank, where a Western backed Palestinian government in charge, are also facing difficulties.
The Palestinian Christian population has dipped to 1.5% of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, down from at least 15% a half century ago, according to some estimates cited by The Jerusalem Post. "No city in the Holy Land is more indicative of the Christian exodus than Bethlehem," believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, said the news paper.
BETHLEHEM TENSIONS
The town of 30,000 is now less than 20 percent Christian, after decades during which Christians were the majority. Elsewhere in the Palestinian Authority territories, only about 3,000 Christians, mostly Greek Orthodox, live in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, among a strongly conservative Muslim population of 1.4 million.
Christians also in the cross fire of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. On Friday, February 20, news emerged that five Palestinians were killed and at least 40 wounded when Israeli warplanes launched a raid on a building in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Medics and and witnesses said the attack focused on the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanun.
Israel has said the operations are part of efforts to end rocket and suicide attacks on Israeli soil, carried out by Palestinian militants.
