ISRAELI police raided a left youth club ahead of May Day rallies on Friday and seized Palestinian flags, the country’s Communist Party says.

Masked officers, who did not identify themselves, stormed a club for youth members of the Hadash alliance — a coalition including the Communist Party of Israel (CPI), which is the country’s only party with a mixed Jewish and Palestinian membership — and took the flags. Footage of the incident has been posted online.

Hadash member and former MP Yousef Jabareen said the “thuggish” act “lacked any legal basis.” CPI Knesset member Ofer Cassif has called on the attorney-general to formally investigate, though police say they are looking into the matter.

“The very act of breaking into a legal political party club on the eve of a legal protest march has a serious chilling effect on the freedom of speech and the freedom to organise,” he wrote to the attorney-general, pointing out that displaying Palestinian flags is “entirely legal.” Hadash says police regularly confiscate them nonetheless, saying they disturb the peace.

Police also frequently ban their display at particular events — with bans on their being flown at marches to commemorate the Nakba, the violent expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes that accompanied the establishment of the state of Israel, having resulted in the cancellation of these demos two years running. Mr Jabareen told Israeli media suppression of the flag has become more common under National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has been accused of turning the police into a political private army.

Israeli communists marched at May Day rallies in Nazareth and Tel Aviv on Saturday despite the police intimidation.