Blast rocks Christian pro-Israel center in the Netherlands
On Saturday, Dutch police announced they were investigating an overnight explosion at the Israel Center in the central town of Nijkerk.
There were no reports of injuries and the damage at the site, run by the Christians for Israel charity, was minimal, a police statement posted on social media said, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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Police said there had been no arrests and appealed for witnesses to come forward.
Christians for Israel said the detonation was caused by an explosive device.
In a statement on its website, the group expressed shock and said the blast fits a pattern of attacks on Jewish sites that are intended to sow fear.
Israel’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Zvi Aviner Vapni, said that the explosion was not an isolated incident and called for the capture of the perpetrators, in a post on X.
The incident comes after a string of similar attacks on Jewish sites across Europe in recent weeks that has heightened concerns over antisemitism in the wake of the war in the Middle East.
In March, four ambulances in north London belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish not-for-profit volunteer organization that responds to medical emergencies, were set ablaze outside a synagogue in an antisemitic hate crime.
UK media outlets reported that a terror group going by the name Ashab al-Yamin had taken responsibility for the attack on social media.
The group emerged publicly last month and is believed to be linked with Iranian terror networks. Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry said the group has claimed responsibility for a series of explosions and arson attacks targeting Jewish sites in Belgium, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam.
The group also claimed that it had attacked a Jewish site in Greece earlier this month, although it is not clear what that referred to.
By Ulviyya Salmanli
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