Sixty people suspected of involvement in yesterday’s anti-Semitic attack at an airport in Dagestan have been arrested. The Russian authorities announced this and said that nine police officers were injured in the clashes.
“More than 150 active participants in the riots have been identified and 60 of them have been arrested,” the Russian Interior Ministry’s press service said in a statement, adding that two officials were hospitalized. More than 20 people were injured in the incidents, including civilians and police officers. The local health ministry, Tass reported, reported that ten people were hospitalized, two of them in critical condition, while another ten people with minor injuries received outpatient medical treatment.
Several hundred people gathered at the airport in Makhachkala – the capital of the Muslim-majority Russian republic of Dagestan – in a protest against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which then degenerated into clashes when dozens of people stormed the runway and terminal after a plane landed Israel was announced.
The images circulating on social media are dramatic and show what appears to be a real manhunt with eerie echoes of a pogrom. In the videos, someone can be heard shouting “Allah u Akbar” among the people entering the airport, while other images show dozens of men breaking through barriers, trying to control cars entering the airport leave, or break open the doors to the interior of the terminal.
The intervention of the special forces and the police calmed the situation, while the authorities launched a call to stop the “illegal acts”. The airport staff, in turn, suggested that the demonstrators select three people equipped with cameras to board the plane and prove that there were no Jews in the plane’s cabin.
Israel’s reaction was immediate: the Foreign Ministry released a statement emphasizing that it “expects the Russian police authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli and Jewish citizens, wherever they are, and to take decisive action against the demonstrators and take action against wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis,” adding: “Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alex Ben Zvi is working with Russian authorities to ensure the safety of Israelis and Jews there.”
The United States also condemned what it called “anti-Semitic protests” at Dagestan airport. “The United States strongly condemns the anti-Semitic protests in Dagestan, Russia,” wrote Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. to X. The U.S. “clearly supports the entire Jewish community as we experience a global rise in anti-Semitism,” he added
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke on the issue, speaking of “horrifying videos from Makhachkala” and emphasizing that what happened in Dagestan was “not an isolated case, but part of the widespread Russian culture of hatred towards other nations.” “This year, the Russian foreign minister made a number of anti-Semitic statements, and the Russian president also made anti-Semitic insults,” Zelensky added.
The incident came at a time of particular tension between Russia and the Jewish state over the Gaza war. In recent days, a Hamas delegation traveled to Moscow for talks, and today the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem summoned the Russian ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, to protest, emphasizing, among other things, Moscow’s lack of clear condemnation of the terrorist organization considers the behavior of Hamas and Russia in international bodies to be “serious”.
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