France has recorded more than a thousand antisemitic acts since the deadly 7 October attack by Hamas gunmen on Israel, the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, has said, reports The Guardian.
“The number of antisemitic acts has exploded,” he told France 2 television, adding that 486 people had been arrested for such offences, including 102 foreigners.
Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 240 hostages, Israeli authorities say.
Since then, Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip in its battle to destroy Hamas, levelling many buildings and areas and, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, killing more than 9,700 people, mostly women and children.
France’s Jewish population, estimated at over 500,000, is the largest in Europe and the third-biggest in the world, after Israel and the US.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez said on Sunday that there had been 257 antisemitic acts in the Paris region alone, and 90 arrests.