MOSCOW, Russia: Hundreds of people stormed into the Russia’s Dagestan region’s main airport and even onto the landing field Sunday to search for Jews on board an airliner coming from Tel Aviv, Israel and to protest the Israel’s action against people in Gaza.
The protestors chanted antisemitic slogans to register their protest against the ‘child killers’, Russian news agencies and social media reported.
News reports from Russia said the crowd surrounded the airliner, which belonged to Russian carrier Red Wings. The website Flightradar indicated that a Red Wings flight out of Tel Aviv had landed at Makhachkala at 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT).
According to the independent Russian media outlet, Sota, it was a transiting flight that had been due to take off again for Moscow two hours later.
Authorities closed the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, and police reached the facility. Ministry of Health of Dagestan said more than 20 people were injured, with two in critical condition. It said the injured included civilians and police officers.
The country’s civilian aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, later said that the airfield had been cleared, but that the airport would remain closed to incoming aircraft until November 6.
Videos posted on social media showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and others trying to overturn a police car. Antisemitic slogans can be heard being shouted and some in the crowd also examined the passports of arriving passengers, apparently to identify those who were Israeli.
One protester could be seen in the videos holding a placard reading “Child killers have no place in Dagestan.” Some other videos showed a crowd inside an airport terminal trying to break down doors as staff members tried to stop them.
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The incident comes as Israeli forces continued to besiege and bombard Gaza in a bid to avenge the October 7 Hamas action against Israel.
Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza has killed more than 8,000 people, half of them children, according to aid agencies and the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
In a statement Sunday night, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel “expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.” The statement added that the Israeli ambassador to Russia was working with Russia to keep Israelis and Jews safe.
According to Russian authorities, CCTV footage would be used to establish the identities of those who stormed the airport and that those involved would be brought to justice. While raising support for Palestinians in Gaza, the regional Dagestani government appealed to citizens to remain calm and not take part in such protests.
“We urge residents of the republic to treat the current situation in the world with understanding. Federal authorities and international organizations are making every effort to bring about a cease-fire against Gaza civilians … we urge residents of the republic not to succumb to the provocations of destructive groups and not to create panic in society,” the Dagestani government wrote on Telegram.
Dagestan and Chechnya are both mainly Muslim areas — known in Russia as “republics”. The region has witnessed years of violent tension with the central Russian authorities.
Earlier on Sunday, a news agency reported that a Jewish center in another North Caucasus republic — Kabardino-Balkaria — had been set on fire in the city of Nalchik.
