Middle East war
Rocket strike in Gaza: protests and violence in Germany
Pro-Palestine demonstrators argue with the police in front of the Brandenburg Gate. photo
© Paul Zinken/dpa
There are clashes with the police at a pro-Palestine vigil in Berlin. Barricades are burning in Neukölln. There are also solidarity rallies in other cities, but they remain peaceful.
After a devastating rocket hit a hospital in the Gaza Strip, with probably hundreds of deaths, Palestinian supporters in many places in Germany spontaneously protested, sometimes violently. In Berlin police said emergency services were attacked on Tuesday evening after a pro-Palestine vigil at the Brandenburg Gate. The police spoke of more than 300 people who had gathered there; a dpa photographer estimated the number at around 1,000. After several loudspeaker calls to leave the place, the unauthorized gathering was dispersed.
The nearby Holocaust memorial had to be protected by police officers. According to media reports, demonstrators tried to get there but were prevented from doing so. The police did not initially confirm this on Wednesday morning.
There were riots in the Neukölln district of Berlin following a call for an undeclared pro-Palestine demonstration. The fire brigade announced on X, formerly “Twitter”, that barricades, e-scooters and a children’s playground were on fire. Their emergency services were attacked with pyrotechnics. The police were attacked with stones. Two police officers had to be treated by the emergency services.
Incendiary devices flew towards Jewish institutions
According to the affected community, there was an attempted arson attack on a house with Jewish institutions in Berlin on Wednesday night. The Kahal Adass Yisroel community wrote on the X platform, formerly Twitter, that unknown people had thrown two Molotov cocktails from the street in the direction of their community center on Brunnenstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. The Berlin “Tagesspiegel” also reported this, citing the police. Upon request, this confirmed an incident on Brunnenstrasse, but initially did not provide any details.
According to “Tagesspiegel” there were no injuries. The incendiary bottles were functional and burned. However, the building did not catch fire because the attackers missed it. The newspaper wrote, citing the police, that the incendiary devices only flew onto the sidewalk and went out there. Police security guards were at the scene, but were unable to prevent the attack or detain the perpetrators.
According to the report, the building houses several Jewish institutions, including a Talmud Torah school and a synagogue.
Protests also in North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg
There were also pro-Palestinian rallies in several cities in North Rhine-Westphalia with a total of more than 500 participants. Most of them came together in Aachen, numbering 200, as the police announced that night. Around 100 people each took to the streets in Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Essen, and Cologne reported 30 people. The rallies were peaceful, as police control centers said. Some demonstrators had Palestinian flags and candles with them.
In Baden-Württemberg there were rallies with 40 to 60 participants in Stuttgart and Mannheim. Palestinian flags were occasionally shown. Police control centers said the gatherings were peaceful.
While the health authority in the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamist Hamas, and several Arab states blamed Israel for the rocket strike, the Israeli army firmly rejected this. The army said the hospital was hit by a failed rocket from the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad.