The Israeli flag was vandalized on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The city quickly replaced it.

The Israeli flag on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway was defaced with what appears to be red paint on Friday, drawing condemnation from Jewish leaders in the region.

The Philadelphia Police Department confirmed the vandalism, but declined to say whether there was a suspect at this time. City workers removed the sullied flag and replaced it with a new one sometime before noon.

The vandalism comes amid sustained outrage and debate over Israeli’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. In Philadelphia, the fallout from the war has brought an uptick in incidents targeting both Jews and Muslims, as well as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian residents, including numerous cases of vandalism.

“Hate has no place in Philadelphia under Mayor Cherelle L. Parker,” a spokesperson for the mayor said. “As soon as we learned of the defacement of the Israeli flag, our Department of Public Property took down the damaged flag, and replaced it with a new one ...The defacement of the flag is under investigation by Philadelphia police.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia thanked the city for quickly removing and replacing the flag, noting that the vandalism followed a drone strike in Tel Aviv that killed one person and injured 10 others. Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack and described it as retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war.

“This defacement following last night’s terror attack in Israel meant to threaten and intimidate the Greater Philadelphia Jewish community, further contributing to rising levels of antisemitism nationally,” the Federation said in a statement.

Friday’s incident was not the first to target the Parkway’s blue-and-white flag featuring the Star of David.

The city flies over 100 flags along the city’s mile-long, museum-lined boulevard. Most are arranged alphabetically by nation, but Israel is an exception: It is located next to the Holocaust Memorial near 16th Street. (The city does not fly a Palestinian flag on the Parkway.)

A man was arrested in 2018 after spraying red paint on the Israeli flag. That incident came amid international outrage over the Gaza border protests, when the Israeli military killed and injured dozens of Palestinian protesters.

Former Mayor Jim Kenney at the time said that, while “emotions are running high” over the violence toward Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, “it doesn’t warrant hateful acts of vandalism.”