Fuad is a relative of Rami Ayyad, an employee of the Gaza Bible Society and by all accounts an enthusiastic witness for the Lord who was brutally executed last year by Muslim forces that intend to impose strict Islamic law on Gaza. Palestinian Arab Christians have been experiencing increased persecution since the introduction of the Palestinian Authority into Judea, Samaria and Gaza in 1993. However, the suffering has mushroomed since Hamas militarily seized control of Gaza last year and opened the area up to the kind of Islamic oppression so common throughout the region. In related news, a Palestinian newspaper reported last week that Muslims in the Samarian town of Nablus had vandalized a local Christian cemetery, smashing many of the tombstones.