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Anti-Muslim hate incidents soar in UK amid Israel's war on Gaza: monitor

The incidents included abusive behaviour, threats, assaults, vandalism, discrimination, hate speech and anti-Muslim literature, according to UK monitoring group Tell MAMA.

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Women were the target in 65 percent of cases, the group said. / Photo: Reuters Archive

Anti-Muslim hate incidents in the UK have more than tripled following the outbreak of the Israeli war on Palestinians in Gaza, a monitoring group said.

On Thursday, Tell MAMA said it had recorded 2,010 such cases in the four months since Hamas's attack against Israel on October 7 sparked the recent conflict.

That was the largest recorded number of cases in a four-month period, said a statement from the organisation, which was set up to monitor and report such incidents.

The latest figures were up from 600 incidents over the same period in 2022-2023, a rise of 335 percent.

"We are deeply concerned about the impacts that the Israel and Gaza war are having on hate crimes and on social cohesion in the UK," said Tell MAMA director Iman Atta.

"This rise in anti-Muslim hate is unacceptable and we hope that political leaders speak out to send a clear message that anti-Muslim hate, like anti-Semitism, is unacceptable in our country."

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Mainly women targetted

Tell MAMA said that 901 cases occurred offline while 1,109 were online. Most of the offline incidents took place in the British capital London, it added.

They included abusive behaviour, threats, assaults, vandalism, discrimination, hate speech and anti-Muslim literature.

Women were the target in 65 percent of cases, the group said.

Earlier this month, a Jewish charity reported that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain hit record levels last year.

The Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in Britain, recorded 4,103 "anti-Jewish hate incidents" in 2023, its highest annual tally since it began counting them in 1984.

That represented a 147-percent increase on the 1,662 incidents recorded in 2022.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's subsequent invasion of Gaza and attacks have killed at least 29,410 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the latest Health Ministry figures in the enclave.