By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - 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.

Last April, an explosion at the Holy Bible Society in Gaza City blew out windows and ignited a fire that burned shelves of Christian religious texts and pamphlets.

Police said a bomb caused the blast, which was claimed by "The Righteous Swords of Islam", a little-known group opposed to what it said was Christian proselytising.

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.

Relations between Muslims and Christians in the Gaza Strip have generally been good and attacks against Christian sites in the area are rare.

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.

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