[IsraelTimes] A cruise ship carrying hundreds of Israelis was reportedly unable to dock in Greece due to an anti-Israel protest and has continued instead to Cyprus.
According to Hebrew media reports citing passengers on board the ship, the cruise company, Mano Maritime, decided not to attempt to dock at the Greek island of Syros due to the large anti-Israel protest and will travel instead to Limassol, Cyprus.
There was no immediate confirmation from the cruise company. Earlier, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said he spoke with his Greek counterpart about the issue and requested intervention in the docking of the ship.
Hundreds of Israeli cruise passengers are stuck aboard their ship at the Greek island of Syros, due to a large anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protest taking place at the docks, according to multiple reports in Hebrew media.
Passengers aboard the “Crown Iris” cruise ship, which is operated by Israeli shipping giant Mano Maritime, were set to disembark on the Aegean island for six hours, but due to the protest, they are not being allowed to exit the ship.
One Israeli passenger tells the Kan broadcaster that when one of the Israelis on the ship saw the protest, “we raised Israeli flags and some of us started singing.”
“Inside the ship, we feel safe, but the children are a little stressed,” says the unnamed passenger.
Channel 12 reports that the protest was organized by a group of the island’s residents, who posted on social media that they “raise their fists in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.”
“It is unacceptable that tourists from Israel continue to be welcomed here while the Palestinians are suffering in the Strip,” they said.
Israeli teens say anti-Israel mob attacked them on Rhodes
[IsraelTimes] A group of Israeli teens were attacked by anti-Israel assailants on the Greek island of Rhodes last night, Hebrew media reports.
According to reports, an anti-Israel mob rallied outside a club frequented by Israelis, sparking a confrontation, where Israelis and pro-Palestinians were shouting and cursing at each other.
The group of teens, aged 17-18, decided to leave and not get involved in the tussle, but were then pursued by dozens of the anti-Israel demonstrators, one of the Israelis tells Channel 12 news.
According to Channel 12, a member of the group convinced the mob he wasn’t Israeli by speaking Dutch, while the others sprinted away. One of them was caught and beaten, suffering light injuries, while the other two managed to hide.
“We called the embassy and the police, who said that there was a car on the way, but nobody came. They only arrived after a long time, and they came with us to the apartment,” one of the teens tell Channel 12.
The incident came on the same day as anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protesters blocked tourists on an Israeli-owned cruise ship from disembarking at the Greek island of Syros.
The teens told Hebrew media they were at the island’s Hakuna Matata club, frequented by Israeli tourists, around 3 a.m., when anti-Israel demonstrators started rallying outside, sparking a confrontation, with the two sides shouting and cursing at each other.
“There was commotion and shouting, and we said we didn’t want to get involved and we should go back to the apartment we’d rented,” one of the teens, Shachar Gutman, recalled to the Ynet news site.
The teen said that as he and his friends were leaving the club, they happened upon some more of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators, “and one of them came up to us and asked if we were Israeli.”
“He called out to all his friends — some 30 to 40 people — and they started to chase us. We also started to run, and we didn’t think it was anything serious,” he recalled.
“At one point there was a curve in the road and we didn’t see them for a second — but then we heard motorcycles coming fast in our direction, and we realized there was nowhere to run.”
Friedman told Ynet the assailants were armed with knives, and added: “I jumped up over a wall that I saw and hid there, and another friend saw steps and hid there. Another one hid behind a bush and another one behind a van. They came and kicked the one who was behind the van, and he begged for his life, that they wouldn’t do anything to him. They photographed him and let him go.”
“I’ve never been so afraid in my life. We just wanted to go to a club to have fun, and suddenly people with knives were chasing us. We were afraid it would end in a really bad way,” he said.
Greece is a popular tourist destination for Israelis, and an estimated 621,000 visited the Hellenic Republic in 2024.
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The country has seen a rise in antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught in southern Israel that started the war in Gaza.
Athens in particular has seen several attacks on Israeli tourists.
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