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Fast Forward

Anti-Israel Protests Mar Austria Soccer Match

Protesters against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza attacked Israeli soccer players at a friendly match in Austria on Wednesday evening, stopping play five minutes before the end.

Salzburg police said on Thursday around 20 people with flags and placards, mostly Austrians of Turkish origin, stormed the pitch shouting slogans about the Gaza conflict, in which more than 700 Palestinians have been killed and thousands displaced.

Police said there were clashes with the players from Maccabi Haifa, which was playing a friendly against Lille in Bischofshofen in Salzburg province, but no one was injured and police were quickly able to calm the situation.

The provincial office for the protection of the constitution is investigating.

Austria’s chancellor condemned the violence.

“Guests who are staying in Austria have the right to do so in safety, regardless of their origin and religion,” Werner Faymann said in a statement.

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