From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Palestinian influencer said arrested in Berlin for launching firework through window of residential building
A Palestinian social media influencer has been arrested by German authorities at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport on suspicion of attempted arson and attempted bodily harm, according to reports, after he launched a firework at a residential building on New Year’s Eve.
In a video that has since been deleted from his social media platforms, Atallah Younes can be seen launching a firework directly into the window of a residential building on the other side of the street.
The firework then appears to explode inside the building.
Das Video ist uns bekannt. Unsere Kolleg. haben eine Anzeige aufgenommen. Die Ermittlungen laufen.
^tsm— Polizei Berlin (@polizeiberlin) January 1, 2025
According to the Deutsche Welle news outlet, nobody in the apartment was injured and the fire was extinguished quickly without any major damage. Unverified reports claim that the firework struck the window of a child’s bedroom, but that the room was empty at the time of the incident.
Amid backlash over the incident, Younes, who has some 315,000 followers on Instagram, posted what he said was footage of his apology to the residents of the targeted apartment.
He shared an additional apology video in which he claimed that the incident was “a mistake.”
Deutsche Welle reports that he will be brought before a judge later in the day on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have been arrested across Germany over the past few days after police officers and firefighters were attacked and injured by fireworks on New Year’s Eve.
Five people were killed and hundreds were injured across the country after being hit accidentally by fireworks, and explosions of strong, illegal fireworks in Berlin caused extensive damage in two neighborhoods and injured numerous people, some of them seriously.
In total, 36 apartments were rendered uninhabitable by the fireworks, German news agency dpa reported.
