Toronto Police announced on Thursday that they had arrested five people in connection with Wednesday’s violent incident in which anti-Israel rioters stormed an event featuring IDF veterans.
A statement from Toronto Police Services said that the five are suspected of having entered a private event without permission, forcing entry into the building, damaging property, and entering a common area where attendees were gathered.
They are suspected of carrying actions which caused those in attendance to fear for their safety. One individual sustained injuries from broken glass during the forced entry.
Police were called to remove the individuals from the premises, and several suspects were located in the surrounding area and arrested, said the Toronto Police statement.
“During the arrest process, some of the accused obstructed officers, and one individual assaulted an officer while attempting to prevent an arrest,” it added.
The five are scheduled to appear in court in early January.
The off-campus event was organized by the Students Supporting Israel chapter of Toronto Metropolitan University.
Videos from the scene showed members of SSI piling furniture in front of a glass window while the rioters gathered outside. The two groups shouted at each other through the glass door before the glass was smashed.
SSI representatives said the university had canceled the planned campus event following threats, forcing the group to rent a private space off campus, but even there, protesters tracked them down and disrupted the gathering.
The violent incident comes amid an uptick in incidents of antisemitism in Toronto since the start of the war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Data released by the Toronto Police Service in May found that the city experienced a historic high in reported hate crime incidents in 2024, with the Jewish community, once again, being the leading target.
On Tuesday, one day before the violence at the SSI event, a suspect smashed windows at Kehillat Shaarei Torah (KST) in Toronto, marking the tenth attack on the synagogue in just 18 months.