RAYDAH, Yemen - They have closed their three synagogues and two schools, and avoid public places .
Members of the small Jewish community of Raydah in northern Yemen are gripped by fear.
The 260 Jews who stayed on in the area used to coexist comfortably with their Muslim neighbours.
But on December 11, Masha Yaish al-Nahari, a father-of-nine who taught Hebrew at one of the community's two schools, was gunned down by a Muslim.
"In the past, we lived in security, but now, we are all afraid," the victim's father Yaeish al-Nahari said at his home in Raydah, a large dusty agricultural town swept by the wind.
Wearing the black skullcap worn by observant Jewish men, Nahari said his family had lived in the area for 40 years without previously facing any problems.
Now in his 60s, he said that he still considers himself Yemeni first and Jewish second, but that he is desperate to leave as soon as he can sell his house and doesn't mind where he goes.
"The Yemen's President supports us. We are under his protection," Nahari said. 'After Gaza, the hatred is even bigger'. Israel's deadly three-week offensive against Gaza in December and January has inflamed Muslim animosity towards the country's tiny Jewish minority.
Israeli crimes against Palestinians have been going on for over 60 years, but the latest siege on Gaza and the recent Israeli offensive had matters even worse.
"What happens in Palestine creates hatred in the Islamic world," said Khaled Al-Anesi, the Nahari family's lawyer.
One of the suspected murderer's fellow tribesmen, Samir al-Mattari, agreed. "They have every reason to be afraid, especially after what happened in Gaza," he said, adding that he did not personally hold his Jewish compatriots responsible for Israel's actions.
"They are our neighbours. They are Yemenis. They should stay," he said.
So far, A group of 10 Yemeni Jews has fleed to Israel in a secret airlift.
The quasi-governmental Jewish Agency for Israel said it had organised the operation through clandestine channels, but declined to say how.
Source: Middle East Online