Anti-Israel rioters clashed with police at Mexico City’s Israeli embassy during an “Urgent Action for Rafah” protest on Tuesday.
Masked protesters threw stones at security forces and hurled smoke bombs over police barricades, local media reported. Around 200 rioters joined the protest and social media videos and photos from the scene show multiple blazes erupting near the Israeli compound.
“Tonight a violent demonstration was held in front of the embassy of Israel in Mexico City,” the Foreign Ministry of Jerusalem said. “Israeli diplomats were not harmed and small damage was done to the vicinity of the embassy.”
Mexico recently requested to join South Africa’s International Court of Justice case against Israel, which seeks to “immediately halt” Israel’s operation in Rafah. Countries and activists have banded together to organize “all eyes on Rafah” campaigns this week, in protest of Israel’s strike on the city.
Hamas fired a barrage of long-range rockets at Tel Aviv from Rafah on Monday. Although some activists have questioned Israel’s strike in Rafah, or condemned it as “genocide,” Israel has said that a ground operation in the city is the only way to eradicate Hamas’s last battalions and ensure “total victory” over the terrorists who stormed into Israel on October 7.
Anti-Israel activists in America have ramped up their protest efforts as Israel continues its offensive in Rafah, especially after an explosion in Rafah killed dozens of Palestinians in a tent camp this week. Although activists and anti-Israel politicians have blamed Israel for the explosion, according to the Israeli Defense Forces, the munitions Israel dropped in that area of Rafah “could not have ignited a fire of this size.”
IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a briefing that the IDF aimed for a “closed structure” that was “away from the tent camp.” The IDF is investigating whether or not a secondary explosion, possibly due to a nearby weapons cache, “exploded and ignited the fire,” Hagari said. State department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the U.S. “expressed our deep concern for what happened, asked for more information and urged [Israel] to undertake a full investigation.”
Activists have also led “all eyes on Rafah” protests in Paris, Washington, D.C., London, and Ottawa.