BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian officials denied Sunday that security forces used a military-grade sonic weapon to disperse and scare protesters at a huge anti-government rally in the capital.
Opposition officials and Serbian rights groups claimed the widely banned acoustic weapon that emits a targeted beam to temporarily incapacitate people was used during the protest Saturday. They say they will file charges with the European Court of Human Rights and domestic courts against those who ordered the attack.
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People use the lights on their cell phones as they observe fifteen minutes of silence during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Riot police stand guard on the side of a street during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Police in riot gear walk down a street during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
People welcome protesters from provinces who have arrived ahead of a major rally this weekend in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People welcome a group of cyclists who have arrived ahead of a major rally this weekend in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People hold the lights on their cell phones as they attend a protest ahead of a major anti-corruption rally this weekend, in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Protesters light flares as they gather ahead of a major rally this weekend in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Protesters march during a major rally against populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government, in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People use the lights on their cell phones as they observe fifteen minutes of silence during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Serbia has not denied that it has the acoustic device in its arsenal.
At least 100,000 people descended on Belgrade on Saturday for a mass rally seen as a culmination of monthslong protests against Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government.
The rally was part of a nationwide anti-corruption movement that erupted after a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Serbia’s north in November, killing 15 people.
Almost daily demonstrations that started in response to the tragedy have shaken Vucic’s decade-long firm grip on power in Serbia where many blame the crash on rampant government corruption, negligence and disrespect of construction safety regulations, demanding accountability for the victims.
Footage from the rally show people standing during 15 minutes of silence for the rail station disaster while suddenly experiencing a whooshing sound that immediately triggered panic and a brief stampede.
An Associated Press photographer at the scene said people started scrambling for cover, leaving the middle of the downtown street almost empty as they started falling over each other.
Those exposed to the weapon experience sharp ear pain, disorientation and panic, military experts say. Prolonged exposure can cause eardrum ruptures and irreversible hearing damage.
The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy, a non-governmental organization, condemned “the unlawful and inhumane deployment of prohibited weapons, such as acoustic devices, against peaceful protesters.”
“This act represents a blatant display of force and an attempt to incite chaos, aiming to delegitimize protests and criminalize peaceful citizens,” the group said.
Serbian police and the defense ministry denied that the illegal weapon was used.
The Serbian president on Sunday urged judicial authorities to respond to the information "that sonic cannons were used during the protests," the state RTS broadcaster reported.
“I am asking … the ministry of justice and the prosecutor’s office to react, either to prosecute those who used it, and we know they didn’t but let’s check," Vucic said. “Let there be a proceeding but then they should also prosecute those who went public with such a notorious lie.”
Belgrade’s emergency hospital has denied reports that many people sought help after the incident and urged legal action against those who “spread untrue information.”
People use the lights on their cell phones as they observe fifteen minutes of silence during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Riot police stand guard on the side of a street during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Police in riot gear walk down a street during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
People welcome protesters from provinces who have arrived ahead of a major rally this weekend in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People welcome a group of cyclists who have arrived ahead of a major rally this weekend in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People hold the lights on their cell phones as they attend a protest ahead of a major anti-corruption rally this weekend, in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
Protesters light flares as they gather ahead of a major rally this weekend in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Protesters march during a major rally against populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government, in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People use the lights on their cell phones as they observe fifteen minutes of silence during a major anti-corruption rally led by university students in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, saying it was striking Hamas targets in its heaviest assault in the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in ongoing talks to extend the ceasefire. It was not immediately clear if the operation was a one-time pressure tactic or if the 17-month-old war was being resumed altogether.
“This comes after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all offers it received from the U.S. presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators,” Netanyahu's office said.
Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, criticized the Israeli attacks. “The international community faces a moral test: either it allows the return of the crimes committed by the occupation army or it enforces a commitment to ending the aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza,” he said.
In Gaza, explosions could be heard at various locations and ambulances were arriving at Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza.
The strikes came two months after a ceasefire was reached to pause the war. Over six weeks, Hamas released roughly three dozen hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
But since the first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago, the sides have not been able to agree on a way forward with a second phase aimed at releasing the nearly 60 remaining hostages and ending the war altogether. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the war, and early this month cut off the entry of all food and aid deliveries into the besieged territory to put pressure on Hamas.
The war erupted with Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, cross-border attack, which killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a military offensive that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced an estimated 90% of Gaza's population. The territory's Health Ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu's office said.
The ceasefire had brought some relief to Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to resume to what remained of their homes.
But the territory is coping with vast destruction, with no immediate plans to rebuild. A resumption of the war threatens to reverse any progress made in recent weeks toward halting Gaza's humanitarian crisis.
While the ceasefire largely halted the fighting, Israel has left troops in Gaza throughout the past two months and continued to strike targets, claiming that Palestinians were trying to carry out attacks or approaching troops in no-go zones.
A number of strikes earlier Monday killed a total of 10 people, according to Palestinian officials.
Two strikes in central Gaza hit around the urban refugee camp of Bureij. One struck a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old nephew, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The Israeli military said it struck militants planting explosives.
An earlier strike killed three men in Bureij. The Israeli military said the men were trying to plant an explosive device in the ground near Israeli troops. Gaza’s Hamas-led government said the men were collecting firewood.
In Syria, meanwhile, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former Islamist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel.
Strikes in the southern Syrian city of Daraa killed three people and wounded 19 others, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers, the Syrian civil defense agency said. It said two ambulances were damaged. Other strikes hit military positions near the city.
The Israeli military said it was targeting military command centers and sites in southern Syria that contained weapons and vehicles belonging to Assad’s forces. It said the materials’ presence posed a threat to Israel.
In Lebanon, Israel said it struck two members of the Hezbollah militant group in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, who it said were “observation operatives.” Lebanon’s state news agency reported two people killed in the strike and two wounded.
The military later said it carried out further strikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, without specifying where. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in late November ending the 14-month war between the two sides, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the deal.
Since the ceasefire in Gaza began in mid-January, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.
Still, the deal has tenuously held without an outbreak of wide violence. The ceasefire’s first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire.
Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to follow the ceasefire deal reached by the two sides, which calls for negotiations to begin on the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others.
AP reporter Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
Palestinians Ali Marouf cook on fire on the roof of his destroyed house by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of Palestinian Marouf family cook outside their destroyed house by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of Palestinian Marouf family cook outside their destroyed house by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Members of Palestinian Marouf family cook outside their destroyed house by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians Ali Marouf and his mother Aisha cook on fire on the roof of their destroyed house by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
