Governments worldwide step up security amid Israel-Gaza war
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The French government focused on synagogues and Jewish schools in cities across the country.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – The conflict between Israel and Hamas militants a global impact
Britain
Police in London said on Sunday they boosted patrols following the Hamas attack.
“We are aware of a number of incidents... in relation to the ongoing conflict in Israel and the border with Gaza,” the Metropolitan Police said on social media.
Interior minister Suella Braverman warned of “zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or glorification of terrorism on the streets of Britain”.
“I expect the police to use the full force of the law against displays of support for Hamas, other proscribed terrorist groups or attempts to intimidate British Jews,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
United States
Several cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Houston, stepped up security around synagogues.
Around a thousand demonstrators gathered in New York’s Manhattan on Sunday in solidarity with the Palestinians as a couple of hundred pro-Israel marchers counter-protested.
A pro-Israel rally outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC on Oct 8.
PHOTO: AFP
New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul called the Palestinian solidarity rally “abhorrent and morally repugnant”, and ordered landmarks in the state – including the World Trade Centre and Niagara Falls – to be illuminated in blue and white.
Canada
Rallies in support of the Palestinian people were held in Montreal, where demonstrators held “free Palestine” posters, waved Palestinian flags and called for boycotting Israel, images on TV showed.
Police in the capital Ottawa announced an increased presence at sensitive religious areas, including synagogues and mosques.
Palestinian supporters rallying outside the Ottawa City Hall on Oct 8.
PHOTO: AFP
“We are also reaching out to community partners to ensure they know we are here to support them,” a statement said. “Hate crimes will not be tolerated and will be fully investigated.”
France
The government focused on synagogues and Jewish schools in cities across the country.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin sent an urgent message to regional officials to reinforce surveillance and called for the use of soldiers from Operation Sentinelle, a force deployed across the country since the 2015 terror attacks.
“At a time when terrorist attacks from Gaza are hitting Israel, I ask you to immediately step up vigilance, security and protection of Jewish community sites in France,” he wrote in the message seen by AFP.
France’s Jewish population, estimated at more than 500,000, is the largest in Europe and the third-biggest in the world, after Israel and the US.
A government spokesman said a pro-Palestinian rally scheduled for Monday evening in Lyon would be banned due to the “risk of disturbing public order”.
Germany
Berlin boosted police protection of Jewish and Israeli institutions, while some Palestinian supporters took to the streets of the capital to celebrate the attack.
“In Berlin, police protection has been immediately stepped up,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Bild newspaper.
“The federal government and the regions are closely coordinating their actions.”
Policemen standing in front of the New Synagogue and the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin on Oct 8.
PHOTO: AFP
Authorities were also closely watching “potential supporters of Hamas in the Islamist sphere”, she added.
Berlin police posted photos on social media showing “people celebrating the attacks on Israel by passing out pastries”.
Iran
Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday in major cities including in Teheran’s Palestine Square, carrying Palestinian flags.
Billboards celebrating the offensive Hamas has dubbed “Al-Aqsa Flood” were put up in the capital, including one declaring: “The great liberation operation has begun.”
Crowds in some cities set off fireworks and torched Israeli flags.
Others marched in Palestinian colours while motorists sounded their horns in jubilation.
Lebanon
The Iran-backed Shi’ite movement Hezbollah staged a rally on Sunday in Beirut amid chants of “death to Israel”.
Hezbollah said it fired on Israeli positions in the contested Shebaa Farms border area, “in solidarity” with Hamas.
Senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said the strikes are a message to Israel that “it’s our right and duty to target the enemy so long as it occupies our land”.
Turkey
Demonstrators in Istanbul during a rally in solidarity with Palestinians on Oct 7.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Thousands of Turks joined a march in Istanbul to back the Palestinians.
“The Palestinian people are only defending their homeland, it has nothing to do with terrorism,” said 54-year-old Sahin Ocal, a member of one of the associations that organised the protest.
Yemen
Demonstrators burned Israeli and US flags during a protest in the capital Sanaa, which is controlled by the Houthi militia backed by Iran.
Militia members on the streets shouted “death to America, death to Israel”.
Iraq
A pro-Palestinian demonstration was called in the holy Shi’ite city of Kerbala on Sunday.
About 100 people gathered in the heart of the capital Baghdad on Saturday to celebrate the Hamas’ assault. They stamped on and set fire to Israeli flags, chanting “no to America, no to Israel”.
South Africa
Several hundred members of the Muslim community in Cape Town gathered at the Al Quds mosque in solidarity with the Palestinians.
“South Africa’s liberation movement was also forced... to take up arms to have an impact,” said Mr Shaykh Shahid Esau, a former member of the South African parliament.
During the apartheid era, “the world community was called on to have sanctions against South Africa and we find the very same Western countries that supported South Africa during the apartheid regime...they are the very same people who are now supporting Israel against the Palestinian people,” he added. AFP
