(JTA) — France is experiencing “knife intifada,” according to a French Jewish lawmaker and former Jewish communal leader, following the stabbing of five people in central Paris by a man shouting “Allah is the greatest” in Arabic.
Authorities are treating the knifings, which left one victim dead from a wound to the neck and two severely wounded, as a terrorist attack, Le Monde reported. The names of the victims, who were assailed Saturday near the Paris Opera, have not yet been released. Authorities have also not released the name of the assailant, a man in his twenties who shouted “Allah hu akbar” before he stabbed them. The man was killed by police. His remaining two victims were lightly wounded, Le Monde reported.
“It’s time to finish off radical Islam. It’s them or us,” Meyer Habib wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Intifada, Arabic for uprising, is the name Palestinians have given their struggle against Israel, which has included many terrorist attacks against civilians.
In France, several people have died in recent years from attacks attributed to Muslim extremists, including knifing attacks.
In October, two women were murdered in Marseille by a Muslim extremist who slit their throats. In June, police officers were assaulted by another Muslim extremist wielding a hammer near the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
Since 2012, hundreds of people have died in a series of terrorist attacks across France featuring explosives, firearms and vehicular ramming.
French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed sorrow over the incident at the Paris Opera and thanked police, adding: “We will cede nothing to the enemies of liberty.”
