A 16-year-old terrorist in France attempted to stab a Jewish man wearing a yarmulka Monday morning outside a Marseille synagogue, in the city’s ninth arrondissement district.
The victim sustained wounds to his back and hand, according to French television station BFMTV.
The machete used by the teenage terrorist ultimately ended up on the ground as the young attacker tried to flee the scene. He was arrested about ten minutes later by the Anti-Crime Brigade, BFMTV reported.
The attack took place in a neighborhood which is highly populated with Jews. French police have thrown a dragnet around the area, which has been entirely shut down.
In November 2015, three attackers believed to be linked to the Da’esh (ISIS) terrorist organization stabbed a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to Marseille in the face. At around 8pm local time, Rabbi Tzion Sa’adoun, 56, was attacked outside his home, a short distance from the synagogue and school where he teaches Judaic studies.
According to fellow emissary and Rabbi Eliyahu Altab, who spoke with Chabad.org, “Right outside his home he was ambushed by three people. He was stabbed on his face, body, arms and legs. A car drove by and the attackers got scared and fled.”
One of the attackers demanded the victim look at the tee shirt he was wearing – one emblazoned with the symbol of Da’esh – and then pulled out his knife and stabbed him. All three yelled anti-Semitic epithets. The attack had been the second such incident within weeks.
For the second year in a row, the highest number of immigrants to the Jewish State have come from France, with 7,900 French Jews choosing to make Israel their home last year. In 2014, 7,200 French Jews moved away from their fears in France, to Israel.