A police officer who assaulted queer Irish protester Kitty O’Brien at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Berlin in August 2025 is facing reduced charges. The charges have been narrowed to a single punch, even though O’Brien was left with a broken nose, a broken arm, and chronic radial nerve damage.

In August 2025, queer Irish protester Kitty O’Brien was hospitalised after a violent encounter with Berlin police. O’Brien, a member of the Irish Bloc Berlin, was protesting against the deliberate killing of journalists in Gaza by Israeli air strikes. 

Video footage shared on social media shows O’Brien being punched twice by a police officer. Later in the video, they can be seen with blood from the assault streaming down their face and hands. According to witnesses, their arm was twisted with such force during the arrest that it broke, resulting in O’Brien receiving surgery.

The videos of the assault prompted international condemnation, with many raising concerns about German authorities’ repression of Palestine solidarity protests and a wider pattern of police brutality.

Over a year after the assault, on November 16 and 18, O’Brien is set to testify in criminal proceedings against police officer Nils Kohlos, who’s been accused of bodily harm in public office under Section 340 of the German Criminal Code. However, following an internal investigation into the officer’s conduct, the public prosecutor’s office has narrowed down the charges against Kohlos to cover a single punch.

Despite O’Brien’s account of the assault, the prosecutor has excluded other alleged acts of violence perpetrated by the officer, thus rendering the resulting damage and injuries legally irrelevant. 

The proceedings have brought renewed attention to Germany’s stance against Palestine solidarity, as well as the country’s ongoing military support for Israel. In the first half of 2026 alone, the German government approved approximately €799.3 million in military export licences to Israel.

Over 77,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its genocidal military assault on Gaza in October 2023. On Thursday, November 12, despite the ongoing ceasefire, the Israeli military bombed Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza in what is considered the deadliest single strike since Israel’s elections last month.