Jerusalem: A protest action outside the Israeli Embassy in Mexico City has turned into violent clashes with police that resulted in six people suffering burns and a few journalists being wounded, Mexican broadcaster Telediario has reported.
Some 80 people gathered outside the Israeli Embassy on Tuesday night and attempted to break through the police cordon and break down the barriers. The embassy’s guards, supported by city police officers, fired tear gas to disperse the crowd but were pelted with rocks and Molotov cocktails.
The demonstration and clashes, reportedly involving mostly women, lasted about two hours and ended with no detentions. Several journalists covering the events were injured during the clashes, the report said.
The report cited the capital’s police as saying that four police officers and two women suffered injuries, mostly burns to various parts of their bodies, during the clashes and were being treated by doctors.
The protest action was prompted by the recent Israeli strikes on a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, the media reported.
On Sunday, Israel struck a refugee camp northeast of the city of Rafah. The Palestinian civil defence service said that at least 40 people died and dozens were injured as a result. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the airstrike on the refugee camp a “tragic incident,” adding that an investigation is underway. The Israel Defence Forces said that they used “precise munitions.”
Israel sent troops into Rafah on May 7, seven months after an attack by Palestinian movement Hamas on Israeli territory unleashed the worst escalation of conflict in the Gaza Strip in decades. Israel’s war cabinet vowed to expand the operation in Rafah until it accomplished its declared goal of eliminating all Hamas fighters.
