Protesters against Normalization with Israel Attacked by Bahraini Regime Forces

The protest turned violent on Friday after troops used tear gas and smoke bombs to scatter hundreds of demonstrators who were marching toward the Israeli embassy in central Manama to voice their indignation about normalization with Tel Aviv and the opening of its mission.

Waving national Palestinian flags, the protesters chanted slogans in solidarity with the Palestinian nation and their legitimate cause before policemen started the crackdown.

Local media reports said the Bahraini regime forces arrested some protesters and took them to an unknown place.

Anti-Israel sentiments have been running high in the Persian Gulf kingdom since Tel Aviv opened its embassy during a visit by foreign minister Yair Lapid to Manama, last Thursday.

Following the visit, mass rallies were held across Bahrain, where protestors chanted slogans against the ruling Al Khlifa regime, raised placards in denunciation of normalization with Israel, and burnt Israeli flags.

Lapid's arrival at Manama airport marked the first visit by the highest-ranking Israeli official to the tiny Persian Gulf country since Israel and Bahrain established formal relations last year.

Bahrain’s main opposition group al-Wefaq and the kingdom’s top cleric Sheikh Isa Qassim have already slammed the move by the Al Khalifa dynasty.

Bahrain, along with the United Arab Emirates, signed the peace pact with Israel during an official ceremony hosted by former US president Donald Trump at the White House last September. Sudan and Morocco followed suit later in the year and inked similar US-brokered normalization deals with the regime.

Palestinians condemned the deals as a treacherous “stab in the back” of their cause against the decades-long Israeli occupation.

Palestinians are seeking an independent state in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East al-Quds as its capital.