Amid the rise of anti-Semitic acts in European armed man tried to set fire to a synagogue in Rouenin the northwest of France. After several warnings, the police ended up killing him.
As indicated by the French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin at a press conference, this “antisemitic act against a sacred place (…) affects us very deeply.” They increased in France -which hosts the main Jewish community in Europe- since the beginning of the offensive of Israel in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack launched on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
At the beginning of May, the French Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, indicated that the number of anti-Semitic acts increased by 300% in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023.
France: the murder of the man who tried to set fire to a synagogue
The incident occurred this Friday morning in Rouen, when the police confirmed the “presence of an individual on the roof of the synagogue with a iron bar in one hand and a kitchen knife in the othershouting expletives at them,” said the local prosecutor, Frederic Teillet.
Furthermore, the representative of the public ministry at a press conference declared that “smoke came out of the windows of the synagogue“, which is located in the historic center of the city.
The situation began to worsen when the individual threw the iron bar towards the officers and “then jumped off the roof and ran towards a police officer, threatening him with the knife,” he explained. After several warnings, the threatened agent “would have used his weapon on five occasions, reaching the individual in four“, according to the prosecutor.
Gérald Darmanin, who on April 14 ordered that security be reinforced in front of places of worship and Jewish schools, indicated that the 25-year-old police officer “will be decorated.”
Regarding the fire that broke out in the synagogue, the president of the Jewish community of Rouen, Natacha Ben HaïmHe reported that “caused a lot of damage“, but “a great miracle occurred”, as the “holy” books of the Torah, “the most important object”, were not affected.
How the case continues after the murder in France
After the fact, Justice opened two investigations: one for a fire against a place of worship and “voluntary violence” against public officials, and a second for the death of the man. For his part, the attacker could be identified thanks to a Rouen public transport network card.
The man was of Algerian nationality and, in 2022, he requested a residence permit as a “sick foreigner”, which France finally rejected in January 2024, the minister indicated. According to sources close to the case, the man had a expulsion order from the country for “less than a year.”
Source: Ambito
