By Rich McKay
(Reuters) – A Jewish school in Montreal was hit by gunfire early on Sunday, making it the third time in less than a week that a Jewish school in the Canadian city was hit amid heightened tensions over the conflict between Israel and Gaza, police said, according to local media.
No one was injured but the facade of Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal was struck. Bullet impact marks and bullet shells were found after residents heard gunfire early on Sunday, CBC News in Canada reported.
At the two other schools in Montreal, both reported finding a bullet hole in their front doors Thursday morning, local media reported.
It was unclear if the incidents at Jewish schools in the city’s west end were related.
But on Wednesday, a violent altercation at Concordia University between people aligned with opposing sides of the conflict in Israel and Gaza resulted in injuries and an arrest, according to CBC News.
Mayer Feig, a member of the Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec, says shooting at schools is meant to intimidate the Jewish population in the city, the news agency reported earlier.
In Toronto, police have reported hate crimes against Jews and Muslims had more than doubled the tally for all of 2022 in the three weeks after the initial Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Israel says the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed an estimated 1,400 people and more than 240 were taken hostage. The ensuing Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has killed more than 10,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
