Netherlands: Explosion rocks Christians for Israel NGO center without causing injuries

An explosion caused minor damage Friday night at a pro-Israel center in The Netherlands, with no injuries reported, police said on X on Saturday.

A police spokesman told AFP that no one was inside the building, run by the Christians for Israel NGO in the town of Nijkerk, when the detonation occurred late Friday. Authorities have opened an investigation to identify those responsible.

In a statement posted on its website, the NGO expressed its dismay and said the blast fits into a pattern of attacks against Jewish sites aimed at spreading fear.

The event follows a series of similar nighttime attacks against Jewish spaces in the Netherlands and neighboring Belgium in recent weeks. This string of incidents occurs in a context marked by the conflict in Middle East, where Israel maintains a direct confrontation with the Iranian regime and its allies in the region. 

The international tension stemming from this dispute has heightened sensitivity around acts of antisemitism and generated concern among European Jewish communities, who fear an increase in attacks linked to the current geopolitical climate.

An explosion outside a Jewish school 

An explosion two weeks ago damaged the outer wall of a Jewish school in Amsterdam, leaving no injuries, the mayor of the Dutch capital, Femke Halsema, reported.

The Jews of Amsterdam are "increasingly confronted with antisemitism, and that is unacceptable," denounced the mayor, who called what happened a "cowardly act of aggression."

"It's terrible. Antisemitism has no place in the Netherlands," Dutch government head Rob Jetten declared on X.

Israel denounces a rise in antisemitism in the Netherlands

In mid-March, the Israel Foreign Ministry denounced that "an antisemitism epidemic is raging" in the Netherlands. "Where will the next attack be?" it asks in a statement published on X, in which it argues that "the Dutch government needs to do much more to fight antisemitism."