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Israeli Survivors of Oct. 7 Massacre Detained, Mistreated by British Officials at UK Airport, Jewish Leaders Say
Two UK Border Force officers accused of discriminating against two Israeli survivors of Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughter across southern Israel. Photo: Screenshot from X/Twitter
Two Jewish, Israeli nationals who survived Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel were detained and subjected to discrimination while being processed at Manchester Airport in the United Kingdom on Sunday, a local Jewish civil rights group has charged.
The Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region (JRC) on Monday sent a letter alleging that two Israeli men who had traveled to the UK to discuss narrowly escaping Hamas’ attack on the Re’im Music Festival — where Palestinian terrorists para-glided into the venue, murdered more than 300 young people, and kidnapped dozens of others on Oct. 7. — were singled out by multiple British Border Force officers upon presenting their Israeli passports and explaining why they were there. According to the letter, the officers forced the Israelis to submit to two hours of “detention and interrogation,” as well as abusive comments.
“The only reason for their detention and interrogation was because they are Israeli. We are in possession of a video which shows a male officer speaking in aggressive terms to the two males,” JRC alleged in the letter. “They were detained for two hours. When finally released, the same Border Police Officer said, ‘they had to make sure that you are not going to do what you are doing in Gaza over here.’”
JRC condemned the officers’ “discriminatory treatment” of the men, describing it as antisemitic “abuse” warranting an investigation by the British government and the Manchester Airport Group as a “matter of urgency.”
“We unequivocally condemn the fact that Israeli nationals were detained and subjected to abuse by a Border Police Officer,” the letter stated. “The comment upon their release proves that this individual was motivated by antisemitic intent.”
On Tuesday, a Manchester Airport communications officer told The Algemeiner that it is not the employer of the two Border Force officers in question but said that the allegations “are serious.” The airport has urged the British Home Office, which oversees the Border Force, to “ensure they are looked into,” an action which Home Secretary James Cleverly vowed to take.
“We are investigating this,” Cleverly, a Conservative Party Member of Parliament, said in a statement commenting on the incident on X/Twitter. “We do not tolerate antisemitism or any form of discrimination. This incident will be handled in line with our disciplinary procedures.”
The alleged abuse of the two Israeli men came amid a historic surge in hate crimes targeting the Jewish community around the world, including paroxysms of antisemitic sentiment and violence, following the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7.
Indignities to which diaspora Jews have been subjected range from last week’s cancelling of the Hamilton Film Festival, which was set to take place next month, to the mobbing of Jewish college students in the US and the stabbing of a 50-year-old Jewish man in Zurich, Switzerland. The UK Jewish community is already reeling from another outrage reported earlier this month, the alleged abuse of a 9-year-old Orthodox Jewish boy by Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital nurses, clad in pro-Palestinian “badges and stickers,” who forced him to undergo a blood transfusion on the floor.
As The Algemeiner has previously reported, antisemitic incidents in the UK have occurred in unprecedented numbers since Oct. 7. In 2023 alone, there were upwards of 4,000, and in London, a city home to Europe’s largest concentration of Orthodox Jews, there were 1,177, an average of just over three per day. In one brutal case, two Black females mercilessly battered a Jewish woman, pounding her with punches and then kicking her while she lay on the ground unconscious. Aware of the damage they wrought on the defenseless woman, the assailants, still standing over her body, speculated that she was “dead.” Not 10 days later, someone graffitied a bus stop outside a Jewish girls school, spray painting a blue Star of David and defacing it with a large “X,” spray painted in black.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Israeli Survivors of Oct. 7 Massacre Detained, Mistreated by British Officials at UK Airport, Jewish Leaders Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.