The airport was stormed by anti-Israel protesters: 60 people were arrested in Dagestan

The situation is “under control”. After frightening scenes in Dagestan, where a hostile crowd stormed the capital’s airport on Sunday after announcing the arrival of a flight from Israel, the government of the Russian-majority Muslim republic sought reassurance. On Monday morning, he announced that 60 people had been arrested and that nine police officers had been injured.

“More than 150 active participants in the riots were identified, 60 of them were arrested,” the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement, adding that two wounded police officers were hospitalized.

Attack lasting several hours

This Sunday evening, dozens of men stormed the runway and terminal of the airport in Makhachkala, the capital of the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Dagestan, for several hours, apparently searching for passengers on a flight from Israel. The videos, the authenticity of which AFP could not immediately verify, showed the men driving cars, checking a passenger’s identity, breaking open terminal doors and crowding around the foot of a plane on the tarmac.

After police intervention, the Russian aviation authority said that at 22:20 (20:20 Paris time) the airfield was “cleared of citizens who entered without permission.” The Ministry of Health of the Caucasian republic reported “wounded”, without specifying their number or whether they were wounded during the invasion of the airport or during the actions of Russian forces to restore control.

According to the specialized website Flightradar, the flight from Tel Aviv of the Russian company Red Wings landed at 19:00 local time (16:00 Paris time) in Makhachkala. According to independent Russian media Sota, it was a transit flight that was scheduled to take off again towards Moscow at 21:00 (20:00 Paris time). On the night from Sunday to Monday it was impossible to know whether the plane was still on the runway or what the position of its passengers was. According to the Russian aviation agency, the airport was closed until November 6.

Passport verification

According to Sota, the men first gathered near the airport to check the passports of those leaving for Israeli citizens. According to the Russian newspaper Izvestia and the pro-Kremlin channel RT, they then stormed the airport’s roof and runway.

Videos posted on Telegram show some of them breaking down barriers, checking car interiors or breaking open terminal doors. One video shows a man standing on the wing of a Red Wings plane and approaching the windows. The video still shows one of the men holding a sign: “Child killers have no place in Dagestan,” while others shout “Allahu Akbar.” Some in the crowd waved Palestinian flags.

These incidents were condemned by the Dagestan authorities. All residents of Dagestan “understand the suffering of those who have become victims of the actions of (…) unjust people, 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, vowing to bring accountability.

Although the incident was still ongoing, Israel called on Russia to “protect all Israeli citizens and all Jews.” In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stressed that Israel “takes seriously attempts to attack Israeli citizens and Jews around the world.”

“The United States condemned the ‘anti-Semitic demonstrations’ in the voice of White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the Jewish community, as we witness a global rise in anti-Semitism,” she added.

This event occurred on the 23rd day of the war between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip. The latter has been subject to continuous bombardment by the Israeli army, sparked by the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7, the deadliest in Israeli history.