SPD headquarters in Berlin daubed with apparent Hamas symbols

The Berlin headquarters of Germany's ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) were sprayed with red paint and daubed with apparently pro-Hamas symbols in the early hours of Thursday morning.

"Reason of state = genocide" and two triangles pointing downwards were painted on the Willy Brandt House in central Berlin, a police spokeswoman said. The symbols are linked to sympathizers of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, and police are assuming a political motive.

The phrase is a reference to long-standing German policy towards Israel. Shortly after the unprecedented massacre by Hamas and other extremist groups who killed more than 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the SPD told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call, "The security of Israel is Germany's reason of state."

Speaking to the Jüdische Allgemeine, a German-language Jewish weekly, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert said: "Those who use Islamist symbols are not standing up for the protection and self-determination of Palestinian civilians, but the opposite."

He added: "Hamas is the cause of most of the problems in Gaza. Supporting it means increasing the misery."

Police initially attributed the incident to climate activists but later withdrew this, saying that it remained unclear who was responsible.

While Germany's SPD-led centre-left coalition government, along with the conservative opposition, tends to a pro-Israeli line in the current conflict, there have been violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Berlin and other centres.

Scholz has made clear his broad support for Israel, while also backing a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.