Rioters set fire to Israeli embassy in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY: Rioters set fire to the Israeli Embassy in Mexico on Tuesday during a protest against the Israeli military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

Masked protesters threw stones at security forces who had created a barricade preventing access to the diplomatic mission in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood of Mexico City.

Around 200 people participated in the “Urgent Action for Rafah” demonstration, dozens of whom attempted to break down the barriers. Police deployed tear gas and threw the stones hurled back at the crowd.

Video posted to social media showed fires raging outside the embassy complex. There were unverified reports of several people injured in the chaos.

The demonstration was called following Sunday evening’s Israeli attack on a displacement camp outside Rafah, which killed 45 people according to Palestinian officials after sparking an inferno.

The riot came after Mexico filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s “genocide” case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The ICJ, the principal United Nations judicial arm, located in The Hague, issued a 13 to two ruling on Friday that the Jewish state must “immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in the Rafah governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

On Sunday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the IDF would continue to press its offensive in Rafah in order to free the hostages held by Hamas and destroy the Palestinian terrorist group.

Israeli officials insist that the military operations in the enclave are being conducted in conformity with Friday’s ICJ ruling.