Overview
- Police deployed a large force to keep pro‑Palestinian Handala supporters and pro‑Israel counterprotesters apart at Connewitzer Kreuz, reporting a tense but initially calm start.
- After talks with authorities, the main march moved from a planned path through Connewitz toward the city center via Karl‑Liebknecht‑Straße to Augustusplatz, a change organizers dispute as an effective ban.
- The city’s Allgemeinverfügung imposed a weapons and masking ban and triggered full closures on key streets, with public transport adjustments and precautionary removal of glass containers and boarded shop windows.
- Hundreds gathered for the Handala rally and thousands were expected overall, as roughly 1,000 officers, including reinforcements from other states, operated with a helicopter and a video unit.
- Saxony’s intelligence service labels Handala extremist; a small Freie Sachsen gathering was registered, and Left Party lawmaker Juliane Nagel criticized the Handala protest while urging a peaceful day.