STOCKHOLM: Swedish police said Wednesday that a shooting had occurred at the Israeli embassy Stockholm the day before, adding that no-one was hurt and that an investigation had been opened.
Police said they were alerted that “a bang” had been heard on a street near the embassy in central Stockholm just before 6:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Tuesday.
“We’ve made finds that indicate a shooting at Israel’s embassy, but we don’t want to disclose exactly what finds have been made since there is an ongoing investigation,” Rebecca Landberg, press officer at Stockholm police, told AFP.
The statement came as police in neighboring Denmark said they were investigating two blasts that went off overnight in the “immediate proximity” to the Israeli embassy, also without injuring anyone.
Swedish police said in a statement that information indicated the embassy building had been hit by shots.
Landberg added that no-one was injured and that an investigation has been opened into an aggravated weapons offense, endangerment of others and unlawful threats.
Police had made no arrests, but Landberg said that the area was under heavy surveillance by cameras and police were actively gathering and analizing material.
The shooting came as tensions in the Middle East are spiralling, with Iran firing a barrage of missiles at Israeli territory and Israel vowing to make Iran “pay” for the attack.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, several incidents apparently targeting Israeli interests in Sweden have been reported.
In February, police found a grenade on the grounds of the Israeli embassy compound, which the ambassador said was an attempted attack.
In mid-May, gunshots were fired outside the Israeli embassy, which prompted the country to boost security measures around Israeli interests and Jewish community institutions.
The Scandinavian country’s intelligence agency Sapo said in late May that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden — a claim Iran denied.
The Nordic country has also reported an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes since the war in Gaza started.
In early June, police said they had found a “suspected explosive object” outside the offices of Israeli military technology firm Elbit Systems, known for its unmanned aerial systems, in Sweden’s second-largest city Gothenburg.
Israel embassy in Sweden target of shooting, no-one hurt: police
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Israel embassy in Sweden target of shooting, no-one hurt: police
- Police said they were alerted that “a bang” had been heard on a street near the embassy in central Stockholm
- The statement came as police in neighboring Denmark said they were investigating two blasts near Israel embassy
Bolivia and Israel restore ties severed over the war in Gaza
- Bolivia’s top diplomat Fernando Aramayo met his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar in Washington and signed a declaration agreeing to revive bilateral ties
LA PAZ: Bolivia’s new right-wing government said Tuesday that it restored diplomatic relations with Israel, the latest sign of the dramatic geopolitical realignment underway in the South American country that was once among the most vocal critics of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
Bolivian Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo met his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar in Washington and signed a declaration agreeing to revive bilateral ties, which Bolivia’s previous left-wing government severed two years ago over Israel’s devastating campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
Bolivia’s ministry said the two countries would reinstate ambassadors in the near future and dispatch officials on visits.
As part of a new foreign policy strategy under conservative President Rodrigo Paz, the rapprochement “represents a return to trust, intelligent cooperation and the ties that have always existed, but which are now being revitalized with a modern perspective,” the ministry said in a statement after the meeting late Tuesday.
Aramayo, as well as Bolivian Economy Minister José Gabriel Espinoza, launched this week into a whirlwind of meetings with American officials as their government works to warm long-chilly relations with the United States and unravel nearly two decades of hardline, anti-Western policies under the Movement Toward Socialism, or MAS, party that left Bolivia economically isolated and diplomatically allied with China, Russia and Venezuela.
Paz’s government eased visa restrictions on American and Israeli travelers last week.
In announcing his meeting with Aramayo on Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Saar thanked Bolivia for scrapping Israeli visa controls and said he spoke to Paz after the center-right senator’s Oct. 19 election victory to express “Israel’s desire to open a new chapter” in relations with Bolivia.
Paz entered office last month, ending the dominance of the MAS party founded by Evo Morales, the charismatic former coca-growing union leader who became Bolivia’s first Indigenous president in 2006. Not long after taking power, Morales sent Israel’s ambassador packing and cozied up to Iran over their shared enmity toward the US and Israel.
When protests over Morales’ disputed 2019 reelection prompted him to resign under pressure from the military, a right-wing interim government took over and restored full diplomatic relations with the US and Israel as it sought to undo many of Morales’ popular policies.
But 2020 elections brought the MAS party back to power with the presidency of Luis Arce, who in 2023 once again cut ties with Israel in protest over its military actions in Gaza.
Other left-wing Latin American countries, like Chile and Colombia, soon made similar moves, recalling their ambassadors and joining South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the United Nations’ highest judicial body.
