Berlin synagogue firebombed, with antisemitism spiking as Gaza war rages

A Berlin synagogue was attacked with Molotov cocktails early Wednesday as antisemitic incidents in the German capital have been rising following the violent escalation in the Middle East, Report informs via the Times of Israel.

The Kahal Adass Jisroel community said its synagogue in the city’s Mitte neighborhood was attacked with two incendiary devices. Police confirmed the incident.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz later strongly condemned the attack, saying, “We will never accept when attacks are carried out against Jewish institutions.”

“Unknown persons threw two Molotov cocktails from the street,” the community wrote on X, formerly Twitter. It also posted video footage of police officers investigating the scene in front of the synagogue that was cordoned off.

Germany’s leading Jewish group said two people were involved in the attack, but didn’t give any further details.

“We are all shocked by this terrorist attack,” the Central Council of Jews said in a statement. “Above all, the families from the neighborhood around the synagogue are shocked and unsettled. Words become deeds. Hamas’s ideology of extermination against everything Jewish is also having an effect in Germany.”

The building complex of the Kahal Adass Jisroel community in the center of Berlin houses a synagogue, a kindergarten, and a community center.

Police also said there were riots overnight between Muslim immigrants and police in the city’s Neukoelln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods and at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate in which several officers were injured.

Scholz, who was speaking to reporters during a trip to Egypt on Wednesday, said that Germany would not accept violent and antisemitic protests and that the protection of Jewish institutions would be further increased.

“It outrages me personally what some of them are shouting and doing, and I am convinced that Germany’s citizens are of the same opinion as me,” Scholz said.

The spike in incidents appeared to be related to outrage across the globe at an explosion and fire at al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. The IDF has produced evidence that the blast was caused by an errant Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket fired from Gaza at Israel, and not an Israeli airstrike as argued by Hamas.