German authorities on Tuesday raided the homes of 17 people in the state of Bavaria accused of spreading antisemitic hate speech and threats targeting Jews online, The Associated Press reported.
According to the Bavarian criminal police, the suspects were 15 men and two women aged between 18 and 62. Police questioned the suspects and confiscated evidence from their homes, including cellphones and laptops.
The suspects were said to have celebrated the attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, and were accused of spreading hate speech against Jewish people on social media, using symbols of banned terrorist organizations, the dpa news agency reported.
The police operation focused on Bavaria’s capital city of Munich, where nine of the accused resided. Further searches were carried out in the Bavarian towns of Fuessen and Kaufbeuren as well as in the counties of Passau, Fuerstenfeldbruck, Berchtesgadener Land, Coburg, Aschaffenburg and Hassberge.
One suspect allegedly sent a sticker in a WhatsApp school class chat with the words “Gas the Jews.” Another person, a German-Turkish dual citizen, allegedly posted on his account that “the Jewish sons” deserved nothing more than to be “exterminated,” dpa reported.
Germany has seen a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war, with some 2,000 incidents linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict having been reported so far.
Police have increased security for Jewish institutions across Germany since Hamas attack on Israel. One of the antisemitic attacks was a firebomb attack on a synagogue in Berlin.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently pledged to protect Germany's Jews against the "shameful" upsurge in antisemitism.