Migrants in Europe celebrate Hamas assault on Israel

Migrants in Europe celebrated last night after Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing more than 150 people.

Videos of a migrant camp in Greece showed Palestinians and other asylum seekers cheering in response to the attacks from Gaza.

The footage, published on TikTok, was reportedly taken on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, where the Greek government has set up a “closed” migrant camp surrounded by barbed wire.

Refugees there, many of whom are from Syria and Iraq, reportedly chanted “Allah Akbar” – “God is great”.

Their celebrations were mirrored in many states across the Arab world, where Hamas and Hizbollah supporters gathered in support of the attack.

In Tehran, where the government publicly welcomed Hamas’s military operation, supporters waved Palestinian flags and set off fireworks.

Hizbollah supporters also held a rally in Dahiyeh, a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, where some waved signs that read: “Oh Quds, we are coming.”

The phrase is used in support of Palestinian forces capturing Muslim holy sites. Others stood on an Israeli flag.

At the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, one man handed out sweets to supporters, while others displayed two-fingered victory signs reminiscent of Winston Churchill’s wartime gesture.

A video posted on social media purportedly showed similar celebrations taking place in Baghdad, Iraq, where supporters waved flags and sounded their horns in a convoy.

The AFP news agency reported that some Palestinian supporters had taken to the streets in Berlin, prompting police fears of attacks on synagogues in Germany.

Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, said police presence “has been immediately stepped up” in response.

In Britain, some supported the attacks on social media.

Rivkah Brown, a journalist for the Left-wing news website Novara, tweeted: “Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gazans break out of their open-air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers’ territory.

“The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn’t apologise for it.”

Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK, said “statements about ‘Israel’s right to self-defence’ will only be interpreted by the most fanatical Israeli government as a green light to commit further massacres against the occupied people of Palestine”.