The war between Israel and Hamas entered its 24th day this Monday, October 30. The Gaza Strip is subject to incessant bombardments by the Israeli army, triggered by the Hamas terrorist attack on its soil on October 7, the deadliest in Israeli history. This conflict has repercussions around the world, such as in Dagestan, a Russian republic with a Muslim majority.
What happened ?
Dozens of men stormed the tarmac and terminal of the airport of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, for several hours on Sunday October 29. They were probably looking for passengers on a flight from Israel. Videos, the authenticity of which AFP was not immediately able to verify, are chilling. They show men checking cars, checking the identity of a passenger, forcing doors in the Makhachkala airport terminal and crowding at the foot of a plane on the tarmac.
According to independent Russian media Sota, men first gathered outside the airport to check the passports of people leaving, looking for Israeli citizens. According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia and the pro-Kremlin channel RT, they then burst onto the roof of the airport and onto the tarmac.
Videos posted on Telegram show some of them breaking down barriers, checking the interior of cars or forcing doors into the terminal. One of the videos shows a man posted on the wing of a Red Wings plane, approaching the windows. A video still shows one of the men holding a sign: “Child killers have no place in Dagestan” and others shouting “Allah Akbar”. Some in the crowd waved Palestinian flags.
According to the specialized site Flightradar, a flight from Tel Aviv of the Russian company Red Wings landed at 7 p.m. local time in Makhachkala. According to the independent Russian media Sota, this was a transit flight which was to take off again towards Moscow at 9 p.m. After the intervention of the police, the Russian aviation agency announced that at 10 p.m. 20 the airfield had been “emptied of citizens who had infiltrated it without authorization”.
What is the provisional assessment?
This Monday morning, a new provisional report shows 60 arrests of people suspected of having stormed this airport and 9 police officers injured during these clashes. “More than 150 active participants in the unrest have been identified, sixty of them have been arrested,” the press service of the Russian Interior Ministry said in a statement, specifying that two injured police officers had been hospitalized. “Currently, the airport is entirely under the control of law enforcement,” he added.
On Monday morning, the Russian aviation agency indicated that the airport would only be closed until Tuesday morning, although it had announced the day before a possible closure until November 6. “The airport will only open after careful control (of the premises) by the police,” she said.
What are the reactions?
These incidents were denounced by the Dagestan authorities. “All residents of Dagestan “understand the suffering of those who are victims of the actions of people […] unjust and pray for peace in Palestine,” said the leader of the Russian Caucasus republic, Sergei Melikov. “But what happened at our airport is scandalous,” he continued, promising prosecution.
While the incident was still ongoing, Israel called on Russia to “protect all Israeli citizens and all Jews.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stressed in a statement that Israel “views with seriousness attempts to attack Israeli citizens and Jews around the world.”
The United States condemned “anti-Semitic demonstrations”, through the voice of the spokesperson for the National Security Council of the White House Adrienne Watson, on X (ex-Twitter). “The United States unequivocally stands with the entire Jewish community as we witness a global rise in anti-Semitism,” she added.
The Minister of Information of Chechnya, the neighboring republic, Akhmed Dudayev, called during the day for calm in the face of rising tensions in the Russian Caucasus, and to avoid “provocations”. Attacks targeting Jews “will play into the hands of our enemies who deliberately provoke the world in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said in a video on Telegram. Earlier on Sunday, a Jewish center in the Kabardino-Balkaria region (south) was set on fire in the town of Nalchik, according to the RIA Novosti agency. Chechnya and Dagestan are two unstable republics in Russia whose populations are predominantly Muslim.