Berlin police arrest dozens at pro-Palestinian demonstrations

Police said on Sunday they temporarily detained a total of 69 people at pro-Palestinian protests involving several hundred demonstrators.

They are being investigated for serious breach of the peace, grievous bodily harm and incitement to hatred. Four police officers were injured at the protests on Saturday. One officer was hit on the head by a glass bottle, they said.

According to the police, a demonstration entitled "Stop the Gaza Genocide" on Saturday afternoon was the largest gathering with a peak of 1,800 participants. It was also the scene of the most incidents, they said.

Bottles and pyrotechnics were thrown during the rally, they said. A counter-rally took place under the motto "Against all anti-Semitism." During the protest, a group of people moved towards the counter-protesters.

Police say they responded to this by pushing and shoving protesters. One member of the press was pushed out of the march and physically intimidated, police said.

Earlier, the police had intervened in an unregistered protest in the Alexa shopping centre in the centre of the city near the main Alexanderplatz plaza.

Around 60 pro-Palestinian demonstrators took part in the rally, which was organized as a flash mob under the title "No Money for Israel's crimes!"

Police routinely make arrests at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which have taken place weekly in Berlin since the October 7 attacks by the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement on Israel and the ensuing Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Organizers of pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin, home to one of Europe's largest Palestinian diasporas, have accused police of unwarranted heavy-handed responses, harming protesters and making detentions without clear reason.