Charlie Kirk says TPUSA workers were beaten by “Hamas supporters.”

Radio talk show host Charlie Kirk, founder of the American conservative organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA), said one of the group’s employees was attacked by “pro-Hamas supporters” in Skokie, Illinois, over the weekend.

On Sunday around 5 p.m., a pro-Israel event was held at the Ateres Ayala event site on Touhy Avenue in suburban Chicago, where about 200 pro-Palestinian protesters showed up for a counter-rally, Skokie police told local media.

According to the Skokie Police Department (SPD), events descended into chaos when there were reports of a gunshot and a Chicago police officer and two civilians were treated for minor injuries after someone fired pepper spray. Kirk said his TPUSA employees were affected by the violence.

Newsweek the SPD asked for comment via email on Monday.

In a post on

Responding to a video of the altercation shared by StopAntisemitism on X, the conservative commentator identified one of the TPUSA employees as Peter Christos and said he was not Jewish.

Kirk called for those involved in the attack to be charged with hate crimes.

“That is ours @TPUSA Employee, Peter Christos, who is a Christian and not a Jew,” Kirk said in the post on X. “Yesterday he was violently attacked as he and another TPUSA worker attempted to escort an elderly Jewish couple away from a pro-Israel rally. As they made their way to their cars, they encountered pro-Hamas supporters who attacked them, punching them repeatedly and hitting them with a flagpole before police could get them to safety. All of these thugs need to be arrested and charged with hate crimes.

Christos also reported on the incident on X, saying he was “repeatedly punched, kicked in the head and hit with a flagpole.”

“Yesterday in Skokie, me and @TPUSA “A colleague was violently attacked by pro-Hamas protesters while attempting to escort a lost, elderly Jewish couple to the pro-Israel event.” Christos said in the post. “I was repeatedly punched, kicked in the head and hit with a flagpole. That’s what pro-Israel means in 2023.”

The other TPUSA employee was not identified in the social media posts.

Newsweek contacted Kirk and Christos on Monday via email and on the TPUSA website for comment.

The violence in the Skokie events comes at a time when Israel has intensified its attacks on the Gaza Strip and is preparing for a ground attack. Two weeks of fighting broke out Saturday between Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters and Israeli forces, following surprise attacks on Israel on October 7.

As of Monday, over 1,400 people have died in Israel, in addition to more than 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Associated Press. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “at war” and had stopped deliveries of food, fuel, electricity and medicine to Gaza, home to an estimated 2.3 million people.