French police have arrested a man suspected of trying to set a synagogue ablaze in the southern French city of la Grande-Motte on Saturday, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced.
Most of the Shabbat worshippers had not yet arrived at Beth Yaakov when the explosion occurred. Only the rabbi and five other people were inside the synagogue. No one was injured.
About 200 police officers had been hunting for the suspect, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Saturday.
The terrorist attacker had set fire to several entry doors to the synagogue and several cars nearby.
The suspect, a 33-year-old Algerian, was arrested in Nîmes. No additional details were provided by police.
The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office was put in charge of the investigation.
“Before the police could intervene, the suspect opened fire on the [police], who returned fire. The man was wounded in the face,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, adding that two other people were also arrested.
A policeman was slightly injured when a gas canister exploded as officers secured the site of the attack on Saturday morning.
“This is an antisemitic attack. Once more, our Jewish compatriots are targeted,” Attal said on X. “In the face of antisemitism, in the face of violence, we will never allow ourselves to be intimidated.”
After visiting the synagogue, Attal said an “absolute tragedy” had been narrowly averted after firefighters and police arrived quickly at the scene.
The suspect had set fire to two cars, one of which contained at least one gas canister, in the synagogue’s parking area at about 8:30 a.m.
Police protection of synagogues, and Jewish schools and shops will be stepped up across France.
France, like other countries in Western Europe, has seen a surge in antisemitic incidents following the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza.
Le Parisien, franceinfo and other media said the suspect had been seen on CCTV shortly before the attack with a Palestinian flag tied round his waist.
“Exploding a gas canister in a car in front of the Grande-Motte synagogue at the expected time of arrival of the faithful: it’s not just attacking a place of worship, it’s an attempt to kill Jews,” Yonathan Arfi, who heads CRIF, the umbrella organization of French Jewish groups, said on X.
La Grande-Motte is a coastal resort located near Montpellier.
Earlier this month, Darmanin said at a ceremony commemorating an Aug. 9, 1982, terrorist attack at Chez Jo Goldenberg, a Jewish restaurant in Paris’s Marais district, that the first half of 2024 saw 887 antisemitic incidents, almost triple the 304 documented in the same period of 2023.
Darmanin warned that antisemitism “no longer hides” and that “it is an insult to the dead, the wounded, the humiliated and our history.” He also noted that to date, law enforcement has only captured one suspect in the Chez Jo Goldenberg attack.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff attended the event, laying a wreath and lighting one of six candles memorializing the six individuals killed in a grenade attack that also wounded 22 others. “The United States stands in solidarity with you,” he said. “We cannot be silent, and we must not be afraid.”
Originally published by the European Jewish Press.
