Arrests in Greece after attacks on a synagogue and an Israeli hotel – The Forward

Women enter a Jewish restaurant in central Athens on March 28, 2023. Greek police sources said they arrested two men who were targeting the building. (Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images)

Greek authorities on Thursday arrested and charged seven people over two separate attacks on a synagogue and an Israeli hotel in Athens earlier this year.

The incidents were one of the latest cases of violent anti-Semitism in Europe since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. In France, a 12-year-old girl was recently the victim of a alleged anti-Semitic rapeand this spring a German synagogue Target of a Molotov cocktail.

Other recently reported targets on the continent included the Israeli embassies in Belgium and Sweden. Last weekend An attacker who injured a Serbian policeman guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade was shot dead.

Four of the suspects in Greece – a Greek national, two Iranians and an Afghan accomplice – were charged in connection with an incident in May in which a homemade bomb targeted an Israeli hotel and restaurant. Reuters reportedThree other people – a Greek, an Afghan and an Iranian – were also arrested in connection with an incident in June in which police said two of them threw flammable material at the entrance to an Athens synagogue.

The hotel attackers were accused of planning a racially motivated attack on a foreign-owned building and of arson, endangering human life. The suspects at the synagogue were also accused of arson, robbery and a number of other crimes, authorities said.

A year ago, an incident of anti-Semitic terror occurred in Greece that attracted a great deal of attention. Authorities foiled a planned attack on a Chabad-Lubavitch center in Athens.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.

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