Attacks feared

Many Israeli embassies closed worldwide

On Friday, 28 Israeli embassies around the world remained closed. The reason: after the suspected Israeli airstrike on an Iranian embassy in Syria (see video above), retaliatory attacks were feared.

Two brigadier generals and five other members of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were killed in the attack in the Syrian capital Damascus earlier this week. The Revolutionary Guards are Iran's elite military force, which means that they are considered more powerful than the conventional armed forces. Iran's religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said after the attack that "the vicious regime (Israel, ed.) will be punished by our brave men." Observers interpreted this as a military action.

Attack on the Iranian embassy in Syria on Monday(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Demonstrations for the conquest of Israel
According to the newspaper "Times of Israel", worldwide demonstrations also contributed to the embassy closures on Friday. On the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, there are rallies for the conquest of Israel, which were introduced in 1979 by the then Iranian revolutionary leader and organized by the state. The background to this is the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Among other things, the Israeli embassy in Rome remained closed. Tighter than usual security measures were taken in and around the embassy. There are weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Italy. Most recently, around 3,000 people took to the streets in Rome on Saturday afternoon to protest against "colonialism, racism and genocide".