A couple of Jewish tourists, an American man and his Israeli wife, were attacked by a dozen-strong group of North African men in Venice on the night of between Sunday and Monday, local newspapers reported on Thursday.
The attack began shortly after midnight in the area of Venice’s Santa Fosca church when the group noticed that the man’s clothes suggested he was Jewish, according to the reports.
The couple tried to get away after the group started insulting them and shouting ‘Free Palestine.’ But the gang surrounded them, and intimidated them by simulating sex acts.
A member of the group used a Rottweiler dog to scare the couple and a 31-year-old Tunisian then slapped the Jewish man in the face, having put out his hand pretending to want to shake hands.
At the end of the attack, the woman suffered an injury to her ankle by a bottle that had been smashed on the group, the reports said. The city’s mayor Luigi Brugnaro said in a statement: “Venice is and must continue to be an open, welcoming and safe city, where mutual respect is the foundation of civil coexistence.