Following reports that a plane was scheduled to arrive from Israel, a crowd searching for Jews and Israelis seized an airport in Dagestan, a republic in the Caucasus region of Russia, on Sunday.

Israel called on Russia to defend its citizens in response to the violence in the primarily Muslim area, which coincides with the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Meanwhile, the US denounced the "antisemitic protests".

The Dagestani governor vowed to punish those accountable for the incident.

Videos on social media and from Russia's RT and Izvestia media show that dozens of protesters broke through doors and barriers at Makhachkala airport, some even charging onto the runway. Many were chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).

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Shortly after, the airport was declared closed to all inbound and outgoing flights by Russia's aviation agency Rosaviatsiya, and security forces had arrived.

"The situation is under control," the local government posted on Telegram.

The republic's health ministry released a statement stating that there had been injuries, but it did not specify how many people or what specifically had been hurt.

Rosaviatsiya declared late on Sunday that the airport would stay closed until November 6 after being "freed" from the crowd.

Dozens of men were seen in pictures and videos posted on various local Telegram channels, waiting outside the airport to stop cars.

The phrase "Child killers have no place in Dagestan" was held by one protestor when they were shown in the videos.

In other videos, people could be seen attempting to smash doors in an airport terminal while employees attempted to dissuade them.


At 7:00 p.m. (1600 GMT), a Red Wings aircraft from Tel Aviv made landfall at Makhachkala, according to the website Flightradar.

It was a transiting flight, according to the independent Russian media outlet Sota, and it was scheduled to take off again for Moscow two hours later.

In the deadliest attack in Israeli history, Hamas militants broke through the Gaza border on October 7, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 230 more, according to Israeli officials.

Over 8,000 people have died as a result of Israel's relentless bombing of Gaza, half of them were children, according to the health ministry in the region controlled by Hamas.