AFP
Arson and explosion in front of a synagogue in La Grande-Motte
At least two cars, including one with a gas cylinder that exploded, were set on fire early Saturday in front of the synagogue in La Grande-Motte (Hérault), where Gabriel Attal and Gérald Darmanin announced their arrival after this “obviously criminal” act. When he came to the scene after the fire, a municipal police officer was injured, the mayor of this seaside resort of 8,500 inhabitants, Stéphan Rossignol, told AFP, without being able to immediately provide details on his condition. Rossignol, the city’s surveillance cameras, captured images of someone setting fire to vehicles. The explosion in front of the Beth Yaacov synagogue took place in the middle of the Sabbath, the weekly day of rest for people of the Jewish faith, but no service was in progress. at the time of the incident, according to a gendarmerie source in charge of the immediate investigation, two doors of the religious building were damaged by the disaster, which did not cause injuries other than the municipal police officer, according to this same source Minister Gabriel Attal and Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin quickly announced that they would go there in the afternoon, so that Mr. Darmanin denounced on the social network mobilized to find the author”, he emphasized. The outgoing minister also announced that he had asked all prefects for “immediate” reinforcement of static guards in front of Jewish places of worship The prefect of Hérault François-Xavier Lauch visited the site on Saturday morning – “Attempts to kill” – The government has regularly condemned an increase in anti-Semitic acts since the Islamist movement Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. resume of the conflict in Gaza Crif President Yonathan Arfi “strongly condemned an attempt to kill Jews”. “The use of a petrol container in a car at the time when we think the faithful are arriving at a synagogue is not just arson, not just attacking a building, a place of worship, it is the desire to kill”, he condemned. AFP On Saturday at around 11:00 am, the entire neighborhood of the synagogue was already cordoned off and secured by the police, AFP journalists on the scene noted. The national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office told AFP it was “in contact with the Montpellier prosecutor’s office about this case, which we are evaluating, has almost tripled since the beginning of the year, with “887 facts.” ” recorded in the first half of the year, stated outgoing Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Friday, August 9, while there were 304 in the same period in 2023. They had already increased significantly in 2023, especially after October 7, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which recorded 1,676 during the year, “four times more than in 2022”.ysp-sm-siu/so/ol/gvy