PARIS (JTA) — Children aged 11 and 13 are suspected of vandalizing at least 15 Jewish tombstones and six Christian ones at a cemetery near the French capital.
The three children, two of them 11 years old and the third 13, were taken into custody earlier this week and are awaiting a juvenile court judge review of the charges brought against them, the French-language news site JSSNews.com reported last week.
Police sources told JSSNews that the children were from families of Turkish descent.
The vandalism happened at Villiers-le-Bel, a suburb located north of the French capital, amid a wave of attacks against Jewish institutions and individuals in connection with Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In France, nine synagogue have been attacked, eight of them in the Paris region. Some of the attacks occurred after unauthorized protests against Israel turned into riots in which demonstrators hurled stones and firebombs at synagogues and Jewish-owned stores.
Similar incidents occurred in Belgium and the Netherlands, where unidentified individuals hurled three stones into the home of Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, smashing his backyard door.
