French police have detained a 14-year-old Syrian teenager for stabbing a rabbi in the back on the Paris metro, the agency reported this Thursday. Reuters and French newspaper Le Figaro.
The incident occurred this Wednesday. Authorities say the attacker addressed the 45-year-old rabbi in Arabic in an aggressive tone. The victim responded to the kick in the back by punching the teenager in the face, but did not hit him.
According to the court prosecutor, the possibility that the young man’s behavior was motivated by anti-Semitic motives aggravated the charges. Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, there have been 1,159 anti-Semitic attacks on French soil, almost triple the total for 2022. Prime Minister Elisabeth Bourne is taking part in a march to Paris this Sunday against the phenomenon.