Explosion damages Jewish school in Amsterdam, mayor calls it deliberate attack

An explosion lightly damaged a Jewish school in Amsterdam early on Saturday (14 March) in what the city’s mayor described as “a deliberate attack against the Jewish community.”

No one was injured, but the blast damaged a rainpipe and charred the outer wall of the school, located in an upscale residential neighbourhood on the city’s southern side.

Mayor Femke Halsema said the incident would lead to increased security at Jewish institutions. “This is a cowardly act of aggression against the Jewish community,” she said, adding that Jewish people in Amsterdam are “increasingly confronted with antisemitism. This is unacceptable.”

The school, the only one specifically for Orthodox Jews in the Netherlands, is largely fenced by a spiked metal fence due to earlier threats.

Security at synagogues and Jewish institutions in Amsterdam had already been heightened after an overnight arson attack at a synagogue in central Rotterdam on Friday. In neighbouring Belgium, a synagogue in Liège was damaged by a fire caused by an explosion earlier this week.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called the Amsterdam attack “horrible,” saying it understandably caused “fear and anger” in the Jewish community and that the safety of Jewish institutions “has our full attention.”

• Hamas calls on Iran to avoid targeting neighbors: Middle East conflict on 14 March

Concerns about attacks on Jewish communities globally have increased following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent retaliatory actions.

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