German Interior Minister Supports Deportation of Hamas Supporters

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser gives a statement to the press prior to the EU Justice and Home Affairs council in Luxembourg, 19 October 2023. (EPA)
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser gives a statement to the press prior to the EU Justice and Home Affairs council in Luxembourg, 19 October 2023. (EPA)
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German Interior Minister Supports Deportation of Hamas Supporters

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser gives a statement to the press prior to the EU Justice and Home Affairs council in Luxembourg, 19 October 2023. (EPA)
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser gives a statement to the press prior to the EU Justice and Home Affairs council in Luxembourg, 19 October 2023. (EPA)

Germany's interior minister said on Friday Hamas supporters should be deported from the country where possible, and authorities would keep a close eye on potential threats following the Palestinian militant group's attack on Israel.

"If we are able to deport Hamas supporters, we must do this," Nancy Faeser said following talks with officials at the Federal Criminal Police Office.

"Our security authorities have currently placed an even stronger focus on the Islamist scene," she added, pointing to a recent attack in Brussels as an indication of the threat.

Concerns over antisemitism are growing in Germany, particularly following an attempted attack on a Berlin synagogue with petrol bombs, and clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and police in Berlin and other cities.

At the same time members of Germany's large Palestinian community have said their voices are being silenced by demonstration bans.

Faeser appealed to citizens to alert authorities of any "propaganda" supporting Hamas.

On Friday, prosecutors in Munich searched the house of a 38-year-old German national over an Instagram post defending Hamas's attack, according to a statement from the prosecutor.

"We will not allow this vile hatred and horrific violence to spread," Faeser told reporters.



Russian Region Declares Emergency Situation as Black Sea Oil Spill Fallout Widens

A volunteer works to clear spilled oil on the coastline following an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, in the settlement of Blagoveshchenskaya near the Black Sea resort of Anapa in the Krasnodar region, Russia December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov/File Photo
A volunteer works to clear spilled oil on the coastline following an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, in the settlement of Blagoveshchenskaya near the Black Sea resort of Anapa in the Krasnodar region, Russia December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov/File Photo
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Russian Region Declares Emergency Situation as Black Sea Oil Spill Fallout Widens

A volunteer works to clear spilled oil on the coastline following an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, in the settlement of Blagoveshchenskaya near the Black Sea resort of Anapa in the Krasnodar region, Russia December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov/File Photo
A volunteer works to clear spilled oil on the coastline following an incident involving two tankers damaged in a storm in the Kerch Strait, in the settlement of Blagoveshchenskaya near the Black Sea resort of Anapa in the Krasnodar region, Russia December 21, 2024. REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov/File Photo

Authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region on Wednesday declared a region-wide emergency, saying that oil was still washing up on the coastline 10 days after two ageing tankers ran into trouble.

The oil is from the tankers which were hit by a storm on Dec. 15. One of the vessels split in half, while the other ran aground.

The pollution, which has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular summer resort, has caused serious problems for seabirds and everything from dolphins to porpoises and over 10,000 people have been trying to clear it up. according to Reuters.

Veniamin Kondratiev, governor of the Krasnodar region, said in a statement that he had decided to declare a region-wide emergency because oil was still polluting the coastline in the Anapa and Temryuk districts.

He had previously declared a less serious municipal-level emergency.

"Initially, according to the calculations of scientists and specialists, the main mass of fuel oil should have remained at the bottom of the Black Sea, which would have allowed it to be collected in the water," Kondratiev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"But the weather dictates its own conditions, the air warms up and oil products rise to the top. As a result, they are being carried to our beaches."

Separately, a crisis centre focused on the clean-up said that the bow of one of the tankers - the Volgoneft-239 - had been discovered underwater and that divers would check whether there was any leak of oil products from it as soon as weather conditions permitted.

In total, more than 256 square kilometres of the coastal area have been surveyed and 25 tons of oil-water sludge collected, the same center said.