2023 Eritrean Clashes in Tel Aviv

A substantial community of Eritrean nationals, including many asylum seekers who had fled the authoritarian government in Asmara, had settled in southern Tel Aviv in the years preceding the clashes.[1] The community was politically divided between supporters of the ruling Eritrean government and opponents who regarded it as oppressive. Tensions between these factions had already surfaced around similar embassy-organized events in other countries, a pattern that Eritrean community leaders cited when they tried to prevent the September 2023 event from going ahead.[2]

In the days before the clashes, seven Eritrean church leaders representing regime opponents sent a written letter to police on the Thursday preceding the event, asking that the embassy festival not be permitted.[2] They cited tensions visible on social media and violent incidents that had occurred around comparable events abroad, warning explicitly that escalation could lead to a disaster.[2] Anti-government community members also contacted police directly to request cancellation, and told reporters they had felt their warnings were not taken seriously.[3] Despite these warnings, Israeli police approved the event.[1][4]

The festival was organized by the Eritrean embassy and held at a hall on HaMesger Street in south Tel Aviv.[3] Reports differ on the occasion it marked: the Times of Israel described it as commemorating the 30th anniversary of the current Eritrean ruler's rise to power, while JNS characterized it as celebrating 30 years of Eritrean independence from Ethiopia.[5][6] Ynet, citing opposition members, reported that the event was planned around September 1 — the date marking the start of Eritrea's armed independence struggle — and was to include songs and dancing.[3]

On the afternoon of September 2, opponents of the Eritrean government, many of them wearing blue, gathered at Yad Harutzim Street to protest the conference associated with the embassy festival.[7][3] Pro-government supporters, many wearing red, were also present.[3] Protesters broke through police barricades, threw stones and wooden planks, smashed storefront windows, and broke into the conference hall, causing extensive damage; a police vehicle outside was also vandalized.[7] Fighting spread to HaMesger Street, with participants using construction lumber, metal rods, rocks, and at least one axe.[5]

Police attempted to control the crowds using mounted officers, stun grenades, tear gas, and ultimately live ammunition.[1][7] Officers said they fired when they believed their lives were in danger, and that live rounds were directed at the lower bodies of rioters, with some shots also fired into the air.[2] Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai characterized the level of violence — involving clubs, metal rods, and rocks — as unlike anything previously encountered in Israel.[2] The violence lasted several hours before order was restored.[5]

Published injury totals varied significantly across reporting outlets, reflecting different reporting times and methods. The U.S. Department of State, citing media reports, recorded at least 157 injured, including 49 police officers.[1] The Jerusalem Post put the total at at least 160, with eight in serious condition, 13 in moderate condition, and 93 with light injuries, along with almost 50 injured police officers.[5] N12 reported approximately 170 injured, including 15 protesters in serious condition and 27 police officers.[7] Ynet reported at least 135 wounded, including 49 police officers.[2] These figures were not reconciled across sources.

Ichilov Medical Center reported treating 38 people in its trauma room, including 11 with gunshot wounds, four of whom underwent surgery.[5][7] Hospital director Ronni Gamzu said some injured people arrived independently rather than through Magen David Adom, and the hospital activated a multiple-casualty incident response.[7]

Police initially arrested 39 Eritreans during the clashes.[2] The Population, Immigration and Border Authority subsequently questioned 53 suspects and transferred them to administrative detention at Givon Prison in Ramle on September 5, for at least four days.[1][8] Of those detained, 14 were reported to support the Eritrean regime, 20 opposed it, and the rest were unaffiliated.[8] The Hotline for Refugees and Migrants alleged that some of those placed in administrative detention had not participated in the clashes; all Eritrean regime opponents detained on September 5 were released within a month.[1]

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would convene a special ministerial team to consider measures against those who took part in the disturbances, including possible deportation.[9] The UN refugee agency responded by urging Israel to refrain from mass deportations, warning that decisions affecting all Eritrean asylum-seekers, or returns to a country where people could face serious harm, would contravene international law.[10] The agency noted that the September 2 incidents did not reflect the behavior of the broader Eritrean community in Israel.[10]

The Justice Ministry's Department for Investigation of Police Officers opened a probe into officers' use of live fire on the same day as the clashes, collecting security-camera footage to assess whether officers had acted lawfully and faced genuine danger.[1][2] The inquiry remained pending at the end of 2023.[1] A follow-up report described security-camera footage from Levanda Street that appeared to show a red-shirted participant holding what looked like a firearm; the person had not been arrested at the time of publication.[11] In a separate matter, police arrested a 41-year-old Eritrean resident of Tel Aviv on suspicion of possessing an illegal pistol during the clashes.[11]

The Eritrean government accused Israel's Mossad of fomenting unrest among expatriate communities following the clashes, a claim reported by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies without independent substantiation or an Israeli response.[12] Analysts at the Institute for National Security Studies argued that the incident exposed gaps in Israel's migration policy and the absence of a coherent national domestic-security strategy, describing it as reflecting shortcomings in police functioning and in access to the demographic information needed to identify trends and issue timely warnings.[13]

Contemporary accounts differed over police preparedness. Community leader Berhane Negaasi told Ynet that Eritrean church leaders had warned police in writing that the event could lead to bloodshed and that they did not feel their warnings were taken seriously.[3] Police district commander Haim Bubel acknowledged that police were surprised by the intensity of the violence, while arguing that officers had prepared in response to information that regime opponents might try to burn the venue and that prohibiting the festival might itself have led to confrontations.[2] Police Chief Kobi Shabtai, by contrast, maintained that police had prepared adequately and doubled the forces securing the event.[5]

Opposition members alleged that the festival was used to raise funds for the Eritrean regime and purchase weapons — claims that were not independently verified in any of the cited reports.[3] Community members also alleged that some pro-government participants with gunshot wounds received treatment secretly and that relevant footage had been deleted; these claims were likewise not independently confirmed.[11] The Eritrean government's accusation that Mossad orchestrated the unrest stands without corroboration or an official Israeli response in the available sources.[12]