Israel embassy attacked in Greece

Greek police are investigating a pre-dawn, drive-by gunfire attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital Athens, in which no injuries were reported.

Authorities said the shots were apparently fired from a motorcycle with two assailants passing the embassy building in Athens early Friday.

The police added that two other people on a second motorcycle are also suspected of participating in the incident.

Police have closed off a busy highway outside the embassy and at least 20 bullet casings have been found near the scene of the attack. According to authorities, early evidence indicates a Kalashinkov assault rifle was used.

No person or group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

There is strong opposition in Greece against Tel Aviv’s policies in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, with many demonstrations held in support of the Palestinians.

The attack on the Israeli embassy comes just two days after Palestinian minister Ziad Abu Ein was killed in the occupied West Bank after Israeli soldiers hit him with the butts of their weapons and their helmets.

Abu Ein, who was in charge of the issue of Israeli settlements within the Palestinian Authority, was killed in an anti-Israeli protest in the occupied West Bank village of Turmusiya, during which some 300 Palestinians planned to plant olive trees as a symbolic act of protest against Israeli settlements.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.