Anti-Israeli protests held at airport in Russia’s Dagestan

MOSCOW: Russian police have taken over an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region and arrested 60 people after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed the facility on Sunday when a plane from Israel arrived, the interior ministry said on Monday.

Videos from the airport at Makhachkala, the regional capital, showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport on Sunday evening shouting “Allahu Akbar” or “God is Greatest”.

Another group was seen trying to topple over a patrol truck. Twenty people were wounded at the airport before security forces contained the unrest, local authorities said. The passengers on the plane were safe.

The unrest followed several other anti-Israel incidents in recent days in Russia’s North Caucasus region in response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

The local Dagestan government said earlier that it was strengthening security measures across the republic.  The Russian Aviation Authority has closed the airport for flights until it completes security checks.

The interior ministry, in its statement, said the identity of 150 of what it called the most active protesters had been identified. It said the authorities were looking to track down everyone involved.

“At present, the airport is fully under the control of law enforcement agencies,” the ministry said.

Sergei Melikov, the head of Dagestan, said the incident was a gross violation of the law, even as Dagestanis “empathise with the suffering of victims of the actions of unrighteous people and politicians, and pray for peace in Palestine”.

“There is no courage in waiting as a mob for unarmed people who have not done anything forbidden,” Melikov said on the Telegram messaging app.

Regional leaders in two other areas of the northern Caucasus called for calm. A similar appeal was issued by Dagestan’s chief Muslim cleric, or mufti.

Israel urged Russian authorities to protect Israelis and Jews in their jurisdictions. In the past few days, a Jewish centre under construction in Nalchik, the capital of the nearby Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, was set on fire, emergency officials said.

There have also been reports on social media of small anti-Israeli gatherings over the weekend in Dagestan and across the North Caucasus in Russia’s south.

Russia, which wants an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backs a two-state solution, has tried to maintain contact with all sides in the Israel-Hamas conflict, but has angered Israeli authorities by inviting a Hamas delegation to Moscow. Israel’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador on Sunday.