Police have killed a man who was planning an “attack” on the Israeli consulate general in Munich on the day commemorating the deadly hostage-taking of that country’s athletes at the 1972 Olympics.
German police said they killed a man on Thursday who was about to commit a «attack terrorist” against the Israeli Consulate General in Munich on the day commemorating the deadly hostage-taking of that country’s athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games. “Currently, we assume that it was a terrorist attack connected to the Consulate General of the State of Israel.” in Munich, the local police wrote in a statement, while several media outlets reported the suspect’s sympathies for Islamist theories. “Anti-Semitism and Islamism have no place among us”reacted Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his X account.
The shooter, an 18-year-old Austrian from Austria, was killed by police after firing several shots at around 9 a.m. at police officers guarding sensitive buildings in Munich, including the Israeli consul general, local authorities said. He was armed with an old-model rifle with a bayonet. The shooter is “suspected of having become religiously radicalized”according to Austrian authorities. “Already known to the police since February 2023” The young man of Bosnian origin, who lives in the Salzburg region, was sentenced to death for injuring his classmates. “was accused of participating in a terrorist group” and was subject to a firearms ban, according to a statement. The investigation was closed in April 2023.
Also readMarseille: Imam of Bleuets to be tried on October 3 for apology for terrorism
“Rise of anti-Semitism”
On X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed “his horror” after this “terrorist attack”. “This event shows how dangerous the rise of anti-Semitism is. It is important that the general public vigorously opposes it.”stressed the Israeli consul in Munich, Talya Lador-Fresher, in a statement to AFP sent by email. Since the attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, which triggered the war in Gaza, the German authorities have been particularly on their guard regarding the Islamist threat and the resurgence of anti-Semitism, like many countries in the world. According to the German authorities, Thursday’s shootings are “probably” linked to the anniversary of the bloody hostage-taking at the Olympic Games on September 5, 1972.
In the attack by a Palestinian commando, eleven Israeli athletes were killed, as well as a policeman and five hostage-takers. A ceremony commemorating the victims of the 1972 hostage-taking was canceled Thursday in Fürstenfeldbruck, where the Israeli athletes were shot. Speaking of a “very serious act”German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser assured that “The protection of Jewish and Israeli establishments was a top priority”.
Germany has been on the alert for months because it considers itself “in the crosshairs of jihadist organizations”. Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, the increase in anti-Jewish crimes has been a particular cause for concern in Germany, a country which, because of the Holocaust, has elevated support for Israel to the rank of a reason of state. A record number of 5,164 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded in 2023, compared to 2,641 in 2022, according to domestic intelligence.
One of the most prominent anti-Semitic attacks in post-war Germany occurred in 2019, when two people were killed after a neo-Nazi attempted to storm a synagogue in Halle, in the former GDR, on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The Central Council of Jews in Germany estimates that there are around 100,000 practicing Jews in the country and around 100 synagogues.
Related News :