Bottle with flammable liquids thrown at Warsaw synagogue, Polish police reports

According to reports, a bottle containing flammable liquids was thrown onto synagogue grounds in Warsaw on Wednesday during the night. Police said they had not yet established a motive for the attack.

"We were informed overnight about an incident involving a bottle containing a flammable liquid being thrown onto synagogue grounds," a police spokesperson said.

Jewish response to the attack

Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told Reuters that nobody was hurt in the incident, which occurred around 1 am (2300 GMT on Tuesday.)

Schudrich said the incident had left marks on the building, and further details would be made available during a meeting with local, national, and church officials later on Wednesday.

Images on social media showed what appeared to be burn marks on an outer wall of the synagogue building, next to a window.

Israel's ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, said the synagogue was the only one in Warsaw to have survived World War Two and the Holocaust.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown tonight at the Nożyk Synagogue - the only synagogue that survived in Warsaw after the Holocaust. Outrageous Antisemitic attacks such as this can not be tolerated today. The perpetrators must be found and punished. pic.twitter.com/wAeSKSxz1b

— Amb. Yacov Livne (@YacovLivne) May 1, 2024

"Outrageous antisemitic attacks such as this cannot be tolerated today. The perpetrators must be found and punished," Livne wrote on X.

Polish President Andrzej Duda called the attack "shameful". "There is no place for anti-Semitism in Poland! There is no place for hatred in Poland!" he said on X.

Attacks against Jews and Jewish targets have risen worldwide since war erupted in Gaza last October following an attack on Israel by Hamas-led terrorists and Israel's subsequent military operation.