WARSAW (Reuters) – An unknown assailant hurled a bottle containing a flammable substance at a synagogue in Warsaw early on Wednesday, police said, prompting condemnation from Polish political leaders.
Poland’s chief rabbi Michael Schudrich told Reuters that nobody was hurt in the incident, which took place around 1 am (2300 GMT on Tuesday). Police said they had not yet established a motive for the attack.
Attacks against Jews and Jewish targets have risen worldwide since war erupted in Gaza last October following an attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants and Israel’s subsequent military offensive.
“We were informed overnight about an incident involving a bottle containing a flammable liquid being thrown onto synagogue grounds,” a police spokesperson said.
Schudrich said the incident had left marks on the building, adding further details would be made available during a meeting with local, national and church officials later on Wednesday.
Images on social media showed what appeared to be burn marks on an outer wall of the synagogue building, next to a window.
Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, said the synagogue was the only one in Warsaw to have survived World War Two and the Holocaust.
“Outrageous antisemitic attacks such as this cannot be tolerated today. The perpetrators must be found and punished,” Livne wrote on X.
Polish President Andrzej Duda called the attack “shameful”. “There is no place for anti-Semitism in Poland! There is no place for hatred in Poland!” he said on X.
(Reporting by Karol Badohal; Editing by Jason Hovet and Gareth Jones)
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