An attack targeted a synagogue in the south of France on Saturday where a suspect carrying a Palestinian flag lit several fires and caused an explosion, with Emmanuel Macron denouncing a “terrorist” act and anti-Semitism.
At least two cars, including one containing a gas bottle that exploded, were set on fire around 8 a.m. (2 a.m. in Quebec) in front of this place of worship in the seaside resort of La Grande-Motte, which has 8,500 inhabitants, slightly injuring a municipal police officer who had been called by residents.
“Inside the synagogue, there were five people, including the rabbi, who were not injured,” said the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (Pnat) in a statement, which has opened an investigation into attempted terrorist assassinations.
In a CCTV image authenticated by AFP, a suspect, his face uncovered, wears a Palestinian flag around his waist, from which protrudes what appears to be the butt of a handgun. He wears a red keffiyeh and holds in each hand a plastic bottle filled with a yellowish liquid.
According to sources close to the investigation, he then left the scene on foot, running.
“Everything is being done to find the perpetrator of this terrorist act,” reacted French President Emmanuel Macron, as the country prepares to host the Paralympic Games. “The fight against anti-Semitism is a constant battle,” he added on X.
France has “escaped an absolute tragedy”, assured Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who went to La Grande-Motte.
“The first elements, particularly from video surveillance, show that the attacker was extremely determined and that if the synagogue had been full of worshipers at that time, […] “There probably would have been human casualties,” he argued.
“Once again, French Jews have been targeted, attacked, because of their beliefs,” added Mr. Attal. “This outrages us, it revolts us, it scandalizes us,” he insisted, denouncing in passing “a climate fueled by some” since October 7 and the unprecedented attack by Hamas against Israel, followed by Israeli military operations and bombings in Gaza.
The government has regularly denounced the resurgence of anti-Semitic acts in France, home to Europe’s largest Jewish community, since the attack carried out by the Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023 and the start of the war in Gaza.
The attack on the Beth Yaakov synagogue occurred on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest, but there were no services in progress at the time.
“There could have been a lot of people [car] “In the summer, there are a lot of holidaymakers in La Grande-Motte and on the coast who come to pray here,” Perla Dana, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions (CRIF) of the Occitanie region, told AFP. With 8,500 inhabitants in winter, the seaside resort has nearly ten times that number in summer.
“Attempted murder”
The president of the national authorities of the CRIF, Yonathan Arfi, strongly denounced “an attempt to kill Jews”.
“Using a gas canister in a car at a time when we think worshipers are arriving at a synagogue is not simply arson,” he told AFP.
The attack has sparked a wide range of political reactions in a country in political turmoil. For six weeks, a resigned government has been running day-to-day affairs and Mr Macron is under pressure from all sides to appoint a new prime minister.
The leader of the National Rally (far right), Marine Le Pen, denounced the “rise of anti-Semitism” while the leader of France Insoumise (LFI, radical left), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose movement is accused by its adversaries of stirring up anti-Jewish hatred, spoke of an “intolerable crime”.
Anti-Semitic acts have almost tripled since the start of the year, with “887 incidents” recorded in the first half of the year, the Interior Ministry said on Friday, August 9, compared with 304 during the same period in 2023.
They had already increased sharply last year, particularly after October 7 — the date of the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, followed by the deadly response of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip — according to the Interior Ministry, which recorded 1,676 over the year, “four times more than in 2022.”