Twenty people have been injured during the attempted assault by the crowd of an Israeli aircraft at the airport of the Russian city of Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan, a Muslim-majority territory on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The authorities closed the airport after a mob of hundreds of people invaded the premises and reached the take-off runway, according to the Russian federal aviation agency Rosaviatsia. The facilities were finally vacated, despite which the airport will remain closed for one person.
Several videos posted on social networks collected by the Bloomberg agency show how a crowd of people, some carrying Palestinian flags, gathered at the airport where a Red Wings plane arrived from Tel Aviv. Some shouted "Allahu Akbar!" as he rushed onto the runway, while in video footage a person was seen climbing onto the wing of the plane.
The government of Israel has expressed in a statement its confidence that the Russian authorities "will protect the security of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they are, and act decisively against rioters and against savage incitement directed against Jews and Israelis." . For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose country was invaded by Russia in February 2022, was also quick to denounce the "horrific videos from Makhachkala (Russia), where an angry mob broke into the airport in search of Israeli citizens in the flight from Tel-Aviv".
The unrest follows anti-Israel protests in Dagestan and nearby areas. The head of the Dagestan region, Sergey Melikov, denounced the attack on the airport and promised a "proper assessment by law enforcement."
