Israel
Violence broke out when Eritreans protested at an event organized by the country’s embassy in Tel Aviv
Agence France Press in Jerusalem
A dozen Eritrean asylum seekers were injured by Israeli police gunfire in Tel Aviv after a demonstration against an Eritrean government event turned violent, police and medical sources said.
Clashes broke out on Saturday outside a venue in south Tel Aviv where an event organized by the Eritrean embassy in Israel was scheduled to take place.
Hundreds of anti-government Eritreans descended on the site to prevent the event. The police declared the gathering an illegal demonstration and ordered the street to be cleared.
The demonstrators “hurled stones and wooden planks” at officers, who used riot dispersal agents and mounted forces to clear people, some of whom vandalized businesses in the area, police said.
“Officers, fearing for their lives, used live fire against rioters,” police said in a statement, noting that 27 of their members were injured.
Police said they arrested 10 suspects “who attacked police and threw stones at officers.”
Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv said it treated 38 people injured in the clashes, including a dozen with gunshot wounds.
Police said they would increase their personnel in the area. There are also reports of clashes between Eritreans and the police as well as between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean regime elsewhere in southern Tel Aviv.
As of June, there were 17,850 asylum seekers from Eritrea in Israel, most of whom had entered illegally through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula years ago.
They settled in several poor neighborhoods in the coastal city of Tel Aviv, the country’s economic capital.
Eritrea has been led by authoritarian President Isaias Afwerki since officially declaring independence in 1993. It is one of the most isolated states in the world and ranks at the bottom of global rankings for press freedom, human rights, civil liberties and economic development.
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