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Rabbi Eli Schlinger, who was killed in an armed attack in Sydney on Sunday, had previously visited Israel and met with Israeli soldiers, encouraging them to continue the war of genocide against the Gaza Strip, an Israeli television channel and an Israeli activist have revealed.

Schlinger was among 12 people killed and at least 29 others wounded during an armed attack that took place during Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach in Sydney, according to Australian authorities. The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) confirmed that Schlinger was an emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in Australia.

Israeli activist and journalist Hanoch Daom wrote on Instagram that Schlinger travelled to Israel following 7 October 2023, where he met with Israeli soldiers to offer what Daom described as “support and encouragement” during the ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

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Israel’s Channel 12 later broadcast an image showing Schlinger sitting among Israeli soldiers atop a military vehicle. The broadcaster did not clarify where or when the photograph was taken, nor whether it was inside the Gaza Strip.

Schlinger’s social media accounts show that he used the image of himself with Israeli soldiers as his profile picture on both Facebook and Instagram, openly expressing support for the Israeli army.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has long rejected Palestinian national rights and opposes any political settlement that would grant Palestinians sovereignty over occupied territory.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has, for more than two years, resulted in the killing of over 70,000 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 171,000 others, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities and international organisations. The campaign has triggered widespread international condemnation and deepened Israel’s global isolation.

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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.