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ISRAEL

March in Stockholm over Gaza bombings

More than 1,000 demonstrators marched through the Swedish capital on Friday to protest against Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza, waving Palestinian flags and banners decrying "Israel the child killer".

March in Stockholm over Gaza bombings

Organisers said some 1,500 people turned out for the third demonstration in Stockholm since the Israeli bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip began last Saturday, while police put the number at about 1,000.

Protesters carrying a cardboard coffin covered with a Palestinian flag headed up the march through central Stockholm, followed by demonstrators, mainly Muslim immigrants to Sweden, chanting and waving banners stating “Gaza is bleeding”, “Boycott Israel” and “Stop the genocide in Israel”.

The demonstration wrapped up peacefully at around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT).

Organisers told AFP that other demonstrations were planned in the Swedish capital in coming days.

Since Israel unleashed its air and sea campaign six days ago, at least 430 Palestinians have been killed, including 65 children, and 2,250 others wounded, according to Gaza medics.

ISRAEL

Former Israeli soldier attacked on Berlin street

A former Israeli soldier was attacked in the German capital Berlin, police said Saturday, with one or several unknown assailants spraying him with an irritant and throwing him to the ground.

Former Israeli soldier attacked on Berlin street
Israeli soldiers on operation near the Gaza Strip. Photo: dpa | Ilia Yefimovich

The 29-year-old was wearing a top with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) logo when the attackers started harassing him on Friday about his religion, the police added, calling it “an anti-Semitic attack”.

Officers are seeking the assailants, who fled immediately after the attack, on suspicion of a politically-motivated crime.

Saturday is the second anniversary of an attack by a far-right gunman on a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle, who killed two in a rampage when he failed to break into the house of worship.

It was one of a string of incidents that led authorities to declare the far right and neo-Nazis Germany’s top security threat.

Also this week, a musician claimed he was turned away from a hotel in eastern city Leipzig for wearing a Star-of-David pendant.

While the allegations prompted a fierce response from a Jewish community unsettled by increasing anti-Semitic crimes, several investigations have been mounted into contradictory accounts of the incident.

In 2019, police recorded 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes, an increase of 13 percent year-on-year.

“The threat is complex and comes from different directions” from jihadists to the far right, the federal government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism Felix Klein said recently.

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