German Jewish activists said they were shoved and attacked with red paint while hanging up posters of the hostages held in Gaza at a park in Frankfurt on Friday.
Sacha Stawski told German tabloid Bild that he and two others were initially pushed away by a mob of dozens wearing hoods and masks. Some were wearing face coverings bearing the face of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
“We attached posters with photos of the 50 hostages still in Hamas’s captivity to a fence in the Frankfurt Grüneburgpark,” he told Bild.
While holding up photos, he said they heard “antisemitic calls.”
“We were insulted as ‘child killers,’ and I constantly heard ‘Free Palestine,’ and ‘genocide’ calls,” he said, adding that he and two other men were then attacked by a woman holding two tubes of red paint.
“The paint was also poured over my glasses, so I found it hard to see the perpetrator,” he said.
Stawski told the Kan public broadcaster that he suggested to the crowd that they take a moment together to reflect on all the innocent victims of the war.
“I suggested several times to the people there that we hold a minute of silence for all the innocent victims of this war, and said that I, too, only want peace,” he said. “Even though I said this several times, there was nothing but insults and rejection from these people.”
Police confirmed the incident to Bild and said they have increased their presence in the area.
Bild noted that there was an encampment of environmentalists set up in the park — it was unclear if the attackers were linked.
Videos on social media appeared to show that it was not the first time posters of hostages had been ripped down in the park in recent days.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 28 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive, and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.
The park incident was the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks in Germany, amid an upswing in attacks since the start of the war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas onslaught. There have also been a number of attacks on Israeli tourists vacationing in European nations in recent weeks.