When the arrival of a plane from Israel was announced, dozens of men stormed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, for several hours this Sunday evening, October 29th.
When the arrival of a plane from Israel was announced, dozens of men stormed the tarmac and terminal of Makhachkala airport, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Republic of Dagestan in Russia, for several hours in the evening this Sunday, October 29, apparently in search of the Airplane passengers.
After the police intervention, the Russian aviation authority said that at 10:20 p.m. (7:20 p.m. French time) the airfield had been cleared “of citizens who had trespassed without authorization.”
The Dagestan authorities had called on the rioters to “stop their illegal acts,” estimating on Telegram that it was “not easy for any of us to witness the inhumane massacre of a civilian population, the Palestinian people.”
Israel, for its part, called on Russia to “protect all Israeli citizens and all Jews.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stressed in a statement that Israel “views with seriousness attempts to attack Israeli citizens and Jews around the world.”
Looking for Israeli citizens
According to the specialist website Flightradar, a Red Wings plane from Tel Aviv landed in Makhachkala at 7 p.m. local time (4 p.m. French time). According to the independent Russian media Sota, it is a transit flight that was scheduled to take off again towards Moscow at 9 p.m. (7 p.m. in France).
It cannot currently be clarified whether the aircraft was still on the tarmac and what the situation of its passengers was. According to the Russian aviation authority, the airport was closed until November 6th.
According to the independent Russian media Sota, after the arrival of this flight from Israel was announced, men first gathered in front of the airport to check the passports of those leaving in search of Israeli citizens.
According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia and the pro-Kremlin broadcaster RT, they then stormed onto the roof of the airport and onto the tarmac.
Videos broadcast on Telegram, the authenticity of which AFP could not immediately verify, show them breaking barriers, trying to check cars leaving the airport or breaking down doors inside the terminal.
One of the videos shows a man positioned on one of the wings of a Russian Red Wings aircraft. In another, one of the men is seen holding a sign that reads, “Child murderers have no place in Dagestan,” while others shout “Allah Akbar.” Some in the crowd waved Palestinian flags.
Call from neighboring Chechnya to avoid “provocations”
“What is currently happening in Makhachkala is bad. Very, very bad,” commented RT boss Margarita Simonian on X (ex-Twitter).
Earlier in the day, the information minister of the neighboring republic of Chechnya, Akhmed Dudayev, called on Telegram to remain calm and avoid “provocations” in view of the increasing tensions in the Russian Caucasus.
Attacks on Jews “will play into the hands of our enemies who are deliberately provoking the world in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said in a video.
Chechnya and Dagestan are two unstable republics in Russia whose populations are predominantly Muslim.