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Photo: Marcus Brandt/dpa
A 23-year-old student is said to have punched his 30-year-old fellow student in Berlin-Mitte several times in the face because of different opinions on the war in the Middle East, until he fell to the ground, and then kicked him. The 30-year-old was hospitalized with facial fractures, police said.
According to the police, the two men got into an argument because the 30-year-old, who was Jewish, was said to have pro-Israel views and the younger man had pro-Palestinian views.
The 23-year-old fled after the attack and the police later found him at his address. The officers searched his apartment and, among other things, seized the suspect's cell phone. State security is investigating.
A spokeswoman said on Sunday that the suspect would be given the opportunity to comment on what happened. Officials are also evaluating evidence in their investigation, it said. The 30-year-old was out with a 24-year-old acquaintance on Saturday night when the two met the 23-year-old.
The Jewish man's companion denied the police's statements to "Zeit Online" that there was an argument between the two men before the attack. The attacker followed them out of a bar and asked the 30-year-old about his political commitment to Jewish students at the Free University of Berlin and then hit him in the face.
When asked by “Zeit Online”, the Free University of Berlin said that it had not yet received any information about the exact background to the crime. The university distances itself from any form of agitation and violence.
The incident comes amid a dramatic increase in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany, which have become more frequent since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, now in its fourth month.
czl/dpa/AP