A 33-year-old Algerian man who for a “long time nursed a hatred towards Jews” and wanted to “support the Palestinian cause” has been charged with attempted murder for an arson attack on a French Shul last weekend, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
A police officer was injured when a gas canister near a burning vehicle exploded after the suspect allegedly set fires around the Beth Yaacov Shul on Shabbos in the Mediterranean resort town of La Grande-Motte.
The suspect, identified by prosecutors only by his initials EHK, fled the scene but was later arrested. He was injured in the thorax, arm and face during the arrest, France’s national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
French authorities have described the attack as an act of antisemitic terrorism.
The rabbi and several people were inside the building and escaped unharmed; most of the Tzibur had not yet arrived for Shacharis when the explosion occurred.
In addition to attempted murder, the suspect was also charged with taking part in a terrorist conspiracy, arson and assaulting police officers. He has been placed in pretrial detention, the prosecutor’s office said.
The attack deepened anxiety among France’s Jewish community, which has long been targeted by deadly attacks and where antisemitism has skyrocketed since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre that triggered the current war in Gaza.
“Once again, French Jews have been targeted and attacked because of their beliefs,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said after visiting La Grande-Motte. “We are outraged and repulsed.”
France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as to the largest Muslim community in the European Union.
(JNS)