(Note offensive language in paragraph 4)
PARIS (Reuters) – French prosecutors opened a probe on Wednesday over a video showing a group of youths’ antisemitic chants, amid a surge in antisemitism since the attack by Hamas on Israel and subsequent bombardment of Gaza by the Israeli military.
There have been over 850 antisemitic acts in France since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said late on Tuesday, nearly double the number for the whole of 2022.
The video, which circulated on social media, showed a group of youngsters in the metro, chanting.
“Fuck the Jews and fuck your mother, long live Palestine,” the youngsters, whose faces could not be seen, chanted in the video. “We are Nazis and proud of it.”
“Shocking, unacceptable, unworthy comments,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on X, adding that all would be done to identify those involved, while Transport Minister Clement Beaune said the government would be firm.
Prosecutors have also opened an investigation into a series of blue Stars of David spray-painted on walls in Paris and other locations.
(Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
