(Reuters) – Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters broke into the airport in the Russian city of Makhachkala, Dagestan, on Sunday as a plane from Israel had just landed, provoking the intervention of the forces security officers who closed the airport and dislodged the protesters.
About 20 people were injured, two of them seriously, local health authorities said.
Sixty people were arrested, reported the official RIA news agency, according to which 150 of the most virulent demonstrators were able to be identified by the police.
In a video obtained by Reuters, a crowd of mostly young men can be seen waving Palestinian flags, breaking windows and running through the airport shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsia, said its security teams evacuated all protesters by 10:20 p.m. (1920 GMT).
Rosaviatsia added that flights from Tel Aviv to Makhachkala and Mineralnye Vody, both located in the North Caucasus, would be temporarily rerouted to other cities.
Security sources told Reuters that passengers on the plane from Israel were “in a safe place.”
The Kremlin on Monday attributed the assault to “external influence”.
“It is well known and obvious that yesterday’s events around Makhachkala airport are largely the result of external interference,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a conference. Press.
He said “malicious people” had used widely broadcast images of Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip to stir up anger among the population of the predominantly Muslim region in the North Caucasus.
The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, for her part declared that this assault was the result of a “provocation” orchestrated from outside Russia, with Ukraine playing a “direct and key role “.
Ukraine, through Mykhaïlo Podoliak, advisor to President Volodimir Zelensky, denied any role of his country in the unrest in Dagestan.
“Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with the recent significant wave of xenophobic sentiments on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Mykhailo Podoliak said in a written message to Reuters.
Rosaviatsia announced that Makhachkala airport would remain closed until November 6, while an investigation was opened by Russian authorities.
The incident comes a day after a fire at a Jewish center under construction in Nalchik, the capital of neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria, local emergency service representatives said.
Israel has urged Russia to protect Israeli nationals and Jews following the riot at Makhachkala airport.
The Israeli ambassador to Moscow is in contact with Russian authorities, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement, saying it takes “seriously” any attempt to harm Israeli citizens and people of the Jewish faith anywhere in the world.
Russia is trying to maintain contact with all the belligerents in the conflict between Israel and Hamas but provoked the anger of the Israeli authorities by inviting a delegation from the Palestinian group to Moscow last week.
(Written by Dan Williams in Jerusalem; French version Kate Entringer, Jean Terzian, Diana Mandiá and Augustin Turpin, edited by Blandine Hénault)
©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.