Palestinian Christian killed in Gaza

Gaza: A prominent Palestinian Christian in the Gaza Strip was found dead on Sunday after being abducted near his home, security officials said, six months after Islamist fundamentalists blew up a religious bookshop he ran.

There was no claim of responsibility for the killing of Rami Ayyad, director of the Protestant Holy Bible Society.

Medical officials in the Hamas-controlled territory said he had been stabbed repeatedly.

Neighbours said unknown assailants seized Ayyad, 31, on a street near his home in Gaza City late on Saturday. His body was later found elsewhere in the city.

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in the territory condemned the killing.

"This crime will not pass unpunished and the ministry has opened an investigation," the ministry said in a statement.

Some 3,000 Christians live among 1.5 million Muslims in the Gaza Strip, territory that Hamas Islamists seized in fighting against the secular Fatah faction in June.