Local authorities attempt to prevent mobs from storming Israeli embassies across region

Angry masses across the Middle East continue to protest violently in the streets against the Israeli military response to the Hamas invasion and massacre of 1,400 civilians – Israeli and foreign citizens – and soldiers.

Local authorities have worked to prevent mobs from attacking Israeli embassies and consulates in Arab and Muslim nations worldwide.

On Tuesday evening, police in Istanbul, Turkey prevented a mob from storming the Israeli consulate in the city. Violent rioters used fireworks, sticks and rocks during the incident, leaving more than 60 people injured, predominantly police officers. In addition, authorities detained five rioters after they climbed over the police barricades. 

Anger erupted across the Middle East and among the worldwide Muslim population over the explosion at the Al-Ma’amadani Hospital in Gaza. While Hamas was quick to blame Israel, the Israeli military released evidence showing that the hospital blast was caused by a misfired rocket that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group had launched toward Israel.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, stressed that Israel was not behind the lethal blast. 

"It appears that it was done by the other team, not you,” Biden said.

While the American president defended Israel, he admitted that “there’s a lot of people out there who are not sure,” an implicit reference to the growing trend across much of the Middle East to accuse Israel of perpetrating war crimes. 

Some 5,000 Jordanian demonstrators protested on Wednesday against Israel outside of its embassy in the capital Amman.

Jordanian security forces struggled to prevent the large and angry masses from attacking the Israeli diplomatic institution by using tear gas to disperse the violent rioters.

Approximately 70% of the Jordanian population is of Palestinian descent, making the kingdom particularly sensitive to conflicts between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

The Jordanian government insisted that the Jewish state was to blame for the explosion and “bears responsibility for this grave incident,” despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem revealed on Wednesday it would evacuate Israeli diplomatic staff from Jordan, Egypt and Morocco for security purposes. 

Protesters in Morocco blasted the United States, claiming "US complicity in the Israeli war on Gaza."

Many of the protesters chanted “Free Palestine” and expressed their opposition to the signing of the Abraham Accords normalization agreement between Morocco and Israel in 2020. 

The United Arab Emirates, another Arab state that normalized its ties with Israel in 2020, also condemned Israel for the Gaza hospital explosion.