Jewish man detained in Rome for allegedly shooting two left-wing demonstrators with air gun

By Rossella Tercatin

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29 April 2026, 2:45 pm

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Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.

People demonstrate on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Italy from Nazi Germany and the Fascist regime, in Rome, Italy, on April 25, 2026. (Riccardo De Luca / Anadolu via Reuters)

A young Jewish man is in detention in Rome for allegedly shooting and lightly wounding two left-wing demonstrators at a Saturday rally celebrating the anniversary of “Liberation Day” at the end of World War II in Italy.

The individual arrived at a park on a motorcycle wearing a full helmet and targeted a couple in their sixties who were wearing a red neckerchief, a symbol of the Association of Italian Partisans. The man was injured in his neck, and the woman in her shoulder. Both were treated at the site.

According to the Corriere della Sera news outlet, Italian police identified the shooter as he used his own motorcycle, and he confessed, adding that he was “a member of the Jewish Brigade.”

The Jewish Brigade was a group of about 5,000 Jewish soldiers, mostly from Mandatory Palestine, who volunteered to join the British Army to fight against the Nazis.

For the past several years, some Italian Jews have worked to revive the Brigade’s legacy, joining the annual rallies under its banners. Its presence, however, has increasingly been contested by other groups of demonstrators, sometimes referring to its direct connection to Israel and sometimes with plain antisemitic rhetoric.

For several years, the Jewish community in Rome has officially decided to stop attending the rally.

“The arrest of a young man who is a member of the Jewish Community of Rome over the events of April 25 fills us with shock and indignation,” the community’s President Victor Fadlun says in a statement. “The Jewish Community of Rome condemns and unequivocally dissociates itself from any form of anti-democratic violence.”

“We express our full solidarity and closeness to the injured,” he adds. “At such a tense moment, we call on political forces and civil society to avoid any exploitation that could fuel hatred and generate further violence.”

Italy marks the end of the war on April 25, a few weeks before the official Victory Day celebrated across Europe on May 8. The day is a national holiday, and rallies are organized in most major cities.