German police arrested an 18-year-old man after petrol bombs were thrown at a synagogue in the western town of Wuppertal overnight, they said in a statement on Wednesday.
"According to investigations, three suspects threw several incendiary devices at the entrance," police said. No one was hurt and it appears no damage was done to the synagogue, they said. A local resident had alerted them when she saw a fire close to the building.
Prosecutor Hans-Joachim Kiskel said the nationality of the arrested suspect was not clear but added that the man had told authorities he was Palestinian. The other two suspects fled.
The German government last week reassured Jews living in Germany that they should feel safe in the face of anti-Semitic chants and threats heard at some of the protests against Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza, and said such behavior would not be tolerated.
German media have expressed shock at the tenor of anti-Israel chants at some of the demonstrations, in a country which is ultra-sensitive about anti-Semitism because of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis.
Jewish organizations in Europe have been pushing for tougher action on the issue of anti-Semitism for some time, especially since the murder of four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels in May, and they have upped their rhetoric since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas.
On Monday, Israeli Jewish Congress president Vladimir Sloutsker told MKs and foreign diplomats that the situation facing European Jewry is “simply intolerable, unacceptable and inexcusable.”