7 arrested in Greece following attacks on a synagogue and Israeli-owned hotel

Women enter a Jewish restaurant in central Athens, March 28, 2023. Greek police sources said they arrested two men who targeted the building. (Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images)

Greek authorities arrested and charged seven people Thursday for two separate attacks earlier this year on a synagogue and an Israeli-owned hotel in Athens.

The incidents represented one of the latest instances of violent antisemitism in Europe since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. In France, a 12-year-old girl was recently the victim of an alleged antisemitic rape, and this spring, a German synagogue was targeted with a molotov cocktail. 

Other recent reported targets of attack on the continent have included the Israeli embassies in Belgium and Sweden. Last weekend, an attacker who wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade was shot dead. 

Four of the suspects in Greece — a Greek citizen, two Iranians and an Afghan accomplice — were charged in connection with a May incident in which a homemade bomb targeted an Israeli-owned hotel and restaurant, Reuters reported. Another three — one Greek, one Afghan and one Iranian — were also arrested in connection with a June incident in which police said two of them threw flammable material at the entrance to an Athens synagogue.

The hotel attackers were accused of plotting a racially motivated attack on a foreign-owned property, and also charged with arson that put human lives at risk. The synagogue suspects were likewise charged with arson, as well as robbery and a number of other crimes, authorities said.

Greece saw an incident of high-profile antisemitic terror one year ago, when authorities foiled a planned attack on a Chabad-Lubavitch center in Athens.

This article originally appeared on JTA.org.