WASHINGTON: What would it mean if Russia used nuclear warheads to destroy US satellites? Your home’s electrical and water systems could fail. Aviation, rail and car traffic could come to a halt. Your cellphone could stop working.
These are among the reasons why there was alarm this week over reports that Russia may be pursuing nuclear weapons in space.
The White House has said the danger isn’t imminent. But reports of the new anti-satellite weapon build on longstanding worries about space threats from Russia and China. So much of the country’s infrastructure is now dependent on US satellite communications — and those satellites have become increasingly vulnerable.
It would also not be the first time a nuclear warhead has been detonated in space, or the only capability China and Russia are pursuing to disable or destroy a US satellite.
Here’s a look at what’s happened in the past, why Russia may be pursuing a nuclear weapon for space now, and what the US is doing about all the space threats it faces.
THE PAST: STARFISH PRIME AND PROJECT K
Both Russia and the US have detonated nuclear warheads in space. In the 1960s, little was known about how the relatively new weapons of mass destruction would act in the Earth’s atmosphere. Both countries experimented to find out. The Soviet tests were called Project K and took place from 1961 to 1962. The US conducted 11 tests of its own, and the largest, and first successful, test was known as Starfish Prime, said Stephen Schwartz, a non-resident senior fellow at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
Starfish Prime launched in July 1962, when the US sent up a 1.4-megaton thermonuclear warhead on a Thor missile and detonated it about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the Earth.
The missile was launched about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from Hawaii but the effects from the tests were seen around the equator.
“The large amount of enerqy released at such a high altitude by the detonation caused widespread auroras throughout the Pacific,” according to a 1982 Department of Defense report on the tests.
The blast disabled several satellites, including a British one named Ariel, as radioactive particles from the burst came in contact with them. Radio systems and the electrical grid on Hawaii were temporarily knocked out, said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. The debris left satellites in its path malfunctioning “along the lines of the old Saturday matinee one-reeler,” the 1982 report said.
When the former Soviet Union conducted its own test as part of Project K, it did so at a slightly lower orbit and “fried systems on the ground, including underground cables and a power plant,” Kristensen said.
The US and the Soviet Union signed a nuclear test ban treaty a year later, in 1963, which prohibited further testing of nuclear weapons in space.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to say Thursday whether the emerging Russian weapon is nuclear capable, noting only that it would violate an international treaty that prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit.
SATELLITE ATTACKS TODAY
It’s the ability to do that kind of damage that makes it logical that the Russians would want to put a warhead in space, especially if they see their military and economy weakened after fighting a US-backed Ukraine for the past two years, said John Ferrari, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
A space-based weapon that could cripple US communications and the US economy could be an intimidating equalizer, and would just be the latest development from both Russia’s and China’s efforts to weaponize space, he said.
In the past few years China has tested a satellite with a robotic arm that can maneuver to a system, grab it, and move it out of orbit.
Russia has developed a “nesting doll” satellite that opens up to reveal a smaller satellite, and then that one opens to reveal a projectile capable of destroying nearby satellites. In 2019, the Russians maneuvered a nesting doll near a US satellite.
When one of those nesting doll systems “parks next to one of our high-value NRO capabilities, they are now holding that asset at risk,” the deputy chief of space operations of the US Space Force, Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, said at a 2022 space conference. NRO is the National Reconnaissance Office.
Russia also generated headlines around the world when it conducted a more traditional anti-satellite test in 2021, where it shot down one of its own systems. As with the Starfish test, the impact created a large cloud of orbiting debris that even put the International Space Station at risk for awhile.
THE NEW SPACE FORCE
The quickly evolving threat in space was one of the main drivers behind establishing the US Space Force, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing Thursday. In the years since its 2019 creation, the service has focused on developing a curriculum to train its service members, called Guardians, on detecting threats from space and wargaming scenarios on what conflict in space would look like.
The creation of the Space Force elevated spending on satellite systems and defenses. Previously, when space needs were spread among the military services, spending on a new satellite would have to compete for funding with ships or fighter jets — and the services had a more immediate need for the aircraft and vessels, Ferrari said.
But there’s more work to be done, and the revelation that Russia may be pursuing a nuclear weapon for space raises critical questions for Congress and the Defense Department, Ferrari said. If Russia uses a nuclear weapon to take out satellites and that cripples the US economy, does that justify the US bombing Russian cities in return?
“How do you respond to that? You have no good option,” Ferrari said. “So now it’s a question of, ‘What is the deterrence theory for this?’ ”
Before Russia’s satellite threat, there were Starfish Prime, nesting dolls and robotic arms
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Before Russia’s satellite threat, there were Starfish Prime, nesting dolls and robotic arms
India’s maritime vision encompasses SAGAR, Indo-Pacific and MAHASAGAR§
- New Delhi’s world outlook, emphasis on Global South
- PM Narendra Modi’s evolving vision for strategic policy
On March 12, 2015, while commissioning in Mauritius the gleaming Offshore Patrol Vessel Barracuda — built in Garden Reach, Kolkata, to Mauritian specifications — Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined India’s policy toward the Indian Ocean Region.
The IOR policy was titled “SAGAR – Security and Growth for All in the Region,” by the prime minister.
The Indian Ocean, he pointed out, was critical to the world, bearing two-thirds of its oil shipments, one third of its bulk cargo and half of its container traffic. The 40 states that are on its littoral host nearly 40 percent of the world’s population.
The SAGAR policy emphasizes five aspects, the first being ensuring the safety and security of the Indian mainland and island territories, and a safe, secure and stable IOR.
The second is to deepen economic and security cooperation with friends in the IOR particularly maritime neighbors and island states through capacity building, collective action and cooperation.
The third is to seek a more integrated and cooperative future toward sustainable development for all. And the fourth increased maritime engagement in the IOR as the primary responsibility for its stability and prosperity of those living in the region.
If SAGAR was the external outreach of India, in the national context it was complemented by the Sagarmala port-led development initiative.
For long, India has been criticized for its continental bias, that it was focused on its northern and northwest frontiers to the neglect of its vast maritime interests. However, this has been changing.
Since the launch of its Look East policy in 1992, which evolved into the proactive Act East policy in 2015, India has reclaimed its maritime legacy. Modi recently released a special coin commemorating 1,000 years of Emperor Rajendra Chola’s naval achievements.
The Indian navy has been at the forefront of maritime diplomacy through capacity building initiatives, joint exercises, plurilateral conferences, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and search and rescue activities.
The 2004 Tsunami established India’s credentials in disaster relief operations. India came to be recognized as the first responder and net security provider in the IOR, particularly to states in its neighborhood.
India’s prompt assistance to Myanmar in the aftermath of the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008, and being the first country to deliver drinking water to the Maldives after a freshwater crisis in that country in 2014 consolidated that image.
In March, 2025 India mounted a huge relief-and-rescue Operation Brahma to earthquake-hit Myanmar.
“If SAGAR is the sea, then MAHASAGAR denotes ‘ocean’ in Hindi and several other Indian languages.”
Suchitra Durai
India has now graduated to becoming a preferred security partner in the Indo-Pacific region forming defense partnerships that not only include joint exercises and capacity building but also exports of equipment either as a grant or under a Line of Credit at the request of the partner state.
Trilateral maritime security cooperation with Sri Lanka and Maldives which began in 2011, has extended to other Indian Ocean states. This includes Mauritius and Bangladesh with Seychelles as observer under the Colombo Security Conclave that now has a charter and secretariat in Colombo.
The Indian Ocean Naval Symposium which began as an initiative of the Indian navy in 2008 is an inclusive platform to discuss maritime issues and to work out effective response mechanisms.
The symposium has 25 participating countries from South Asia, West Asia, Africa, southeast Asia and European countries with Indian Ocean territories as well as nine observers and a rotating chair (India will take over as chair, at the end of 2025).
MILAN, as it is known, is a biennial multinational exercise hosted by the Indian navy in harmony with the nation’s vision of SAGAR and its Act East policy.
A crucial facet of maritime security is enhanced domain awareness.
Toward this, India has also been pursuing white shipping agreements with several countries, with 22 concluded. And established a state-of-the-art Information Fusion Centre in Gurugram that facilitates sharing of maritime information among member states.
India has a long history of development partnerships going back to the period prior to its independence.
Its approach to development partnerships has been shaped by its independence struggle, solidarity with other colonized and developing countries, and the inspiring leadership of Mahatma Gandhi who declared that “my patriotism includes the good of mankind in general.”
India has therefore been sharing its developmental experiences and technical expertise in a spirit of Vasudhaivakutumbakam (the ancient belief that the World is One Family).
As Modi stated in his address to the Ugandan Parliament in 2018: “Our developmental partnership will be guided by your priorities, it will be on terms that will be comfortable for you, that will liberate your potential and not constrain your future.”
The Indian model of developmental cooperation is comprehensive and involves multiple instruments including grant-in-aid, concessional lines of credit, capacity building and technical assistance. Above all, it is unconditional, transparent, sustainable and financially viable.
In June 2018 at the Shangri La conference, Modi outlined India’s Indo-Pacific vision. For India, the Indo-Pacific stands for a free, open, inclusive region that “embraces us all in a common pursuit of progress and prosperity.”
He emphasized the centrality of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a rules-based order, freedom of navigation, unimpeded commerce and peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with international law.
There is great synergy between the Indian approach and the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
In November 2019 at the East Asia Summit in Bangkok, India launched the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, a coherent initiative comprising seven pillars of practical cooperation built on the SAGAR vision.
India’s active participation in the QUAD (Australia, India, Japan and the US) is part of our Indo-Pacific vision. Earlier, in 2014, India established the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation, a strategic initiative for strengthening diplomatic and economic engagement with islands in the Pacific Ocean.
It was in 2023, during India’s presidency of the G20, whose leitmotif was inclusivity, that the African Union was invited to join the grouping. India’s presidency, inter alia, revived multilateralism, amplified the voice of the Global South and championed development. India has hosted three editions of the Voice of the Global South Summit since then.
Ten years after SAGAR, during an official visit to Mauritius in 2025, Modi announced the MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions), an updated doctrine.
If SAGAR is the sea, then MAHASAGAR denotes “ocean” in Hindi and several other Indian languages. MAHASAGAR marks a strategic evolution from a regional focus on the Indian Ocean to a global maritime vision, with particular emphasis on the global south.
Modi’s recent engagements with Mauritius, Maldives, Trinidad and Tobago, Ghana and now the Philippines are aligned with the MAHASAGAR vision.
• Suchitra Durai is India’s former ambassador to Thailand.
Serbian protesters are back on the streets as clashes with government loyalists escalate
- Protesters gathered in large numbers again on Thursday evening in the capital Belgrade, defying sharp warnings against protests from the president
- Aleksandar Vucic has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms and allowing corruption to flourish in the country
BELGRADE: Thousands of anti-government protesters returned to the streets in Serbia on Thursday after two days of clashes with loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic and riot police that left dozens injured or detained. Police fired tear gas in the country’s capital and several other incidents were reported elsewhere.
In the northern city of Novi Sad, where the anti-Vucic revolt in Serbia started more than nine months ago, groups of young protesters shouted, “He is finished,” as they demolished the offices of the president’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party.
The demonstrators broke windows on the party’s downtown office and carried away some documents and pieces of furniture from inside. The police or Vucic’s supporters, who have guarded the office for months, where nowhere to be seen.
In Belgrade, the Serbian capital, police in the evening fired tear gas in at least two locations to disperse the protesters and keep groups of supporters of the opposing camps apart. Protesters in a downtown area scrambled in panic, some tumbling to the ground as they tried to run away.
Vucic told pro-government Informer television that “the state will win” as he announced a crackdown on anti-government protesters, accusing them of inciting violence and of being “enemies of their own country.”
He reiterated earlier claims that the protests have been organized from abroad, offering no evidence.
The unrest throughout Serbia this week marked a serious escalation in largely peaceful demonstrations led by Serbia’s university students that have shaken Vucic’s firm grip on power in the Balkan country.
Rival groups on Wednesday hurled rock and bottles at each other amid clouds of smoke and chaos. An army security officer at the SNS party offices at one point fired his gun in the air, saying later he felt his life had been in danger.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic on Thursday said there were gatherings at some 90 locations in the country the previous evening.
The Serbian president has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms and of allowing organized crime and corruption to flourish in the country that is a candidate for European Union membership. He denies those allegations.
The EU’s Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said the reports of violence were “deeply concerning.”
“Advancing on the EU path requires citizens can express their views freely and journalists can report without intimidation or attacks,” Kos added on the social media platform X.
Protesters gathered in large numbers again on Thursday evening in the capital Belgrade, in Novi Sad and in some smaller towns, defying sharp warnings against protests from Vucic and other government officials.
On Wednesday evening in Belgrade riot police used tear gas to disperse groups of protesters. Police officers formed a cordon around a makeshift camp of Vucic’s loyalists outside the presidency building downtown.
Dacic, the interior minister, accused the protesters of attacking governing party loyalists. He said “those who broke the law will be identified and sanctioned.”
University students posted on X to accuse the authorities of trying to “provoke a civil war with the clashes” at demonstrations. The rallies so far passed for the most part without incident even while drawing hundreds of thousands of people.
Occasional violence in the past months mostly involved incidents between protesters and the police, rather than between rival groups.
“Police were guarding the regime loyalists who were throwing rocks and firing flares at the protesters,” a post by the informal group, Students in Blockade, said. The account is run by students from across Serbia who have been protesting the government since late last year.
Demonstrations started in November after a renovated train station canopy crashed in Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state-run infrastructure projects.
The protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Serbia is formally seeking EU membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China.
Trump says Putin ready to make deal on Ukraine
- Putin floats prospect of nuclear arms agreement on the eve of their summit in Alaska
- Trump says if meeting goes well, he will call Zelensky and European leaders afterwards
MOSCOW/LONDON/KYIV: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he thought Vladimir Putin was ready to make a deal on ending his war in Ukraine after the Russian president floated the prospect of a nuclear arms agreement on the eve of their summit in Alaska. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his European allies have intensified their efforts this week to prevent any deal between the US and Russia emerging from Friday’s summit that leaves Ukraine vulnerable to future attack.
“I think he’s going to make a deal,” Trump said in a Fox News radio interview, adding that if the meeting went well, he would call Zelensky and European leaders afterwards, and that if it went badly, he would not.
The aim of Friday’s talks with Putin is to set up a second meeting including Ukraine, Trump said, adding: “I don’t know that we’re going to get an immediate ceasefire.”
Putin earlier spoke to his most senior ministers and security officials as he prepared for a meeting with Trump in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday that could shape the endgame to the largest war in Europe since World War Two.
In televised comments, Putin said the US was “making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.”
This was happening, Putin said, “in order to create long-term conditions for peace between our countries, and in Europe, and in the world as a whole — if, by the next stages, we reach agreements in the area of control over strategic offensive weapons.”
His comments signalled that Russia will raise nuclear arms control as part of a wide-ranging discussion on security when he sits down with Trump. A Kremlin aide said Putin and Trump would also discuss the “huge untapped potential” for Russia-US economic ties.
A senior Eastern European official, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Putin would try to distract Trump from Ukraine at the talks by offering him possible progress on nuclear arms control or something business-related.
“We hope Trump won’t be fooled by the Russians; he understands all (these) dangerous things,” the official said, adding that Russia’s only goal was to avoid any new sanctions and have existing sanctions lifted.
'Like a chess game'
Trump said there would be a press conference after the talks, but that he did not know whether it would be joint. He also said there would be “a give and take” on boundaries and land.
“The second meeting is going to be very, very, very important. This meeting sets up like a chess game. This (first) meeting sets up a second meeting, but there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” he said.
Trump said it would be up to Putin and Zelensky to strike an agreement, saying: “I’m not going to negotiate their deal.” Russia controls around a fifth of Ukraine, and Zelensky and the Europeans worry that a deal could cement those gains, rewarding Putin for 11 years of efforts to seize Ukrainian land and emboldening him to expand further into Europe.
An EU diplomat said it would be “scary to see how it all unfolds in the coming hours. Trump had very good calls yesterday with Europe, but that was yesterday.”
Trump had shown willingness to join the security guarantees for Ukraine at a last-ditch virtual meeting with European leaders and Zelensky on Wednesday, European leaders said, though he made no public mention of them afterwards.
Friday’s summit, the first Russia-US summit since June 2021, comes at one of the toughest moments for Ukraine in a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Speaking after Wednesday’s meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump had said the transatlantic NATO alliance should not be part of any security guarantees designed to protect Ukraine from future attacks in a post-war settlement.
However, Trump also said the US and all willing allies should be part of the security guarantees, Macron added.
Expanding on that, a European official told Reuters that Trump said on the call he was willing to provide some security guarantees for Europe, without spelling out what they would be.
It “felt like a big step forward,” said the official, who did not want to be named.
It was not immediately clear what such guarantees could mean in practice.
On Wednesday, Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Putin does not agree to peace in Ukraine and has warned of economic sanctions if his meeting on Friday proves fruitless. Russia is likely to resist Ukraine and Europe’s demands and has previously said its stance had not changed since it was first detailed by Putin in June 2024.
Flash floods kill 44 in Kashmir
- Torrential rain in Chositi village triggered floods and landslides
- At least 50 people were seriously injured with many rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris
SRINAGAR, India: Flash floods caused by torrential rains in a remote village in India-controlled Kashmir have left at least 44 people dead and dozens missing, authorities said Thursday, as rescue teams scouring the devastated Himalayan village brought at least 200 people to safety.
Following a cloudburst in the region’s Chositi village, which triggered floods and landslides, disaster management official Mohammed Irshad estimated that at least 50 people were still missing, with many believed to have been washed away.
India’s deputy minister for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, warned that the disaster “could result in substantial” loss of life.
Susheel Kumar Sharma, a local official, said that at least 50 seriously injured people are being treated in local hospitals. Many were rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris.
Chositi is a remote Himalayan village in Kashmir’s Kishtwar district and is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an ongoing annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 meters (9,500 feet) and about an 8-kilometer (5-mile) trek from the village.
Multiple pilgrims were also feared to be affected by the disaster. Officials said that the pilgrimage had been suspended and more rescue teams were on the way to the area to strengthen rescue and relief operations. The pilgrimage began on July 25 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 5.
The first responders to the disaster were villagers and local officials who were later joined by police and disaster management officials, as well as personnel from India’s military and paramilitary forces, Sharma said.
Abdul Majeed Bichoo, a local resident and a social activist from a neighboring village, said that he witnessed the bodies of eight people being pulled out from under the mud. Three horses, which were also completely buried alongside them under debris, were “miraculously recovered alive,” he said.
The 75-year-old Bichoo said Chositi village had become a “sight of complete devastation from all sides” following the disaster.
“It was heartbreaking and an unbearable sight. I have not seen this kind of destruction of life and property in my life,” he said.
The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes, officials said. They added that more than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen when the tragedy struck. The flash floods also damaged and washed away many homes, clustered together in the foothills.
Photos and videos circulating on social media showed extensive damage caused in the village with multiple vehicles and homes damaged.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “the situation is being monitored closely” and offered his prayers to “all those affected by the cloudburst and flooding.”
“Rescue and relief operations are underway. Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need,” he said in a social media post.
Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India’s Himalayan regions, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions.
Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly because of climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions.
Kishtwar is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region’s fragile ecosystem.
Pro-Palestinian tourist ship protests irk Greek govt
- Pro-Palestinian protests targeted a hulking Israeli tourist ship at each of its stops in the country since July
- They say the visitors “whitewash” Israel’s devastating war in Gaza that began in late 2023
PIRAEUS: A series of pro-Palestinian protests targeting an Israeli cruise ship around Greece have irritated a conservative government walking a diplomatic tightrope with Middle Eastern powers during the Gaza war.
At the crack of dawn on Thursday at the port of Piraeus outside Athens, dozens of riot police armed with truncheons, tear gas and shields sealed up a cruise terminal from hundreds of demonstrators.
Their ire was directed at the “Crown Iris,” a hulking Israeli tourist ship that has attracted protests at each of its stops in the country since last month.
Tourism is a pillar of the Greek economy, but pro-Palestinian activists say the visitors “whitewash” Israel’s devastating war in Gaza that was sparked by the unprecedented 2023 Hamas attack.
According to the All Workers Militant Front (PAME), a communist-affiliated union that called the rally, the Crown Iris was carrying Israeli soldiers.
“We cannot tolerate people who have contributed to the genocide of the Palestinian people moving among us,” protester Yorgos Michailidis told AFP in Piraeus.
“We want people everywhere to see that we don’t only care about tourism and the money they bring,” the 43-year-old teacher said.
For Katerina Patrikiou, a 48-year-old hospital worker, the visitors “are not tourists — they are the slaughterers of children and civilians in Gaza.”
Ties with Israel
Greece traditionally maintained a pro-Arab foreign policy, but governments of different political stripes have in recent years woven closer ties with Israel in defense, security and energy.
Athens has carefully tried to protect both relations during the war, accusing the left-wing opposition of undermining the strategic Israel alliance aimed at counterbalancing the influence of historic rival Turkiye in the eastern Mediterranean.
“The useful idiots for Turkiye have been in our ports, where their extreme actions seriously damage Greece’s image in Israel,” Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis wrote on X last month.
“We must protect this alliance as the apple of our eye and isolate these fools... Those who exhibit antisemitic behavior act against Greece’s interests.”
Before joining the ruling conservative party in 2012, Georgiadis was a prominent member of far-right party Laos, which had a history of anti-Semitic statements.
When first named health minister a year later, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had urged the government to reconsider, noting that Georgiadis had made “troubling remarks” about Jewish people and had promoted an anti-Semitic book.
In 2017, he publicly apologized for having “coexisted with and tolerated the opinions of people who showed disrespect to my Jewish compatriots.”
Several protests each rallying hundreds of people attempted to prevent the Crown Iris from docking at Mediterranean islands including Rhodes, Crete and Syros last month, with occasional scuffles between demonstrators and police.
According to The Times of Israel, the ship’s owners decided to skip Syros after 200 people protested as the vessel approached.
Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Noam Katz, condemned an “attempt to harm the strong relations between our peoples, and to intimidate Israeli tourists” in Syros.
Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis has said that anyone who “prevents a citizen of a third country from visiting our country will be prosecuted” for racism.
“Nobody is racist”
PAME accused the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of using antisemitism allegations “to whitewash the crimes of the murderer state, suppress any reaction, and any expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people.”
“Nobody is racist, nobody has a problem with Jewish identity... Our problem is the people who support genocide,” Michailidis said at Thursday’s rally.
The October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Gaza’s Hamas rulers resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Palestinian militants also took 251 hostages that day, with 49 still held in Gaza, including 27 who the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.
An Israeli aid blockade has exacerbated already dire humanitarian conditions in the devastated strip and plunged its more than two million inhabitants into the risk of famine.
