Palestinian Flag-Wearing Suspect's Synagogue Attack Leaves France Reeling

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French authorities have arrested a man suspected of setting fires and causing an explosion at a synagogue in a southern Mediterranean town on August 24th that injured a police officer in what officials suspect was a terrorist attack.

Two parked cars near the Beth Yaacov synagogue complex in the seaside resort town of La Grande Motte, near Montpellier, were set on fire on the morning of August 24th, with firefighters discovering two additional fires at the two entrances to the synagogue. A police officer was also injured after a propane gas tank exploded near the burning vehicles while walking up to the site.

Five people who were present in the synagogue complex at the time of the attack, including the rabbi, were unharmed. 

“The alleged perpetrator of the arson attack on the synagogue has been arrested,” France’s interim interior minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). Darmanin visited the site on the afternoon of August 24th along with interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and met with local officials and the synagogue’s staff.

Darmanin also praised the police for their “professional conduct” and its elite intervention unit “despite the gunfire” during the operation to hunt and arrest the suspect responsible for the attempted arson. After the attack, he ordered the police to increase security presence around Jewish places of worship to protect them following what he described as “clearly a criminal act.”

French prosecutors said the suspect was arrested shortly before midnight on August 24th in the southern city of Nimes.

“He opened fire on the police intervention unit, which returned fire, injuring (the suspect) in the face,” France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement released on August 25th, adding that two more people linked to the attack were also taken into custody.

The statement also noted that prosecutors are investigating the attack as an attempted assassination connected to a terrorist attack, destruction of property with dangerous means, and a crime planned by a terrorist group with an intent to cause harm.

Stéphan Rossignol, the mayor of La Grande Motte, said investigators reviewed the city’s surveillance videos and said that a lone suspect was spotted at the site of the attack.

“The individual in question did not manage to get inside the synagogue, even though that was clearly his objective,” Rossignol said.

In the footage, a man was seen with a Palestinian flag draped around his waist and his head covered by a red keffiyeh. The man was seen carrying two bottles of a yellowish liquid, and the CCTV footage seems to show the contours of a handgun. Sources close to the investigation said the suspect left on foot.

French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the attack, calling it a “terrorist act” and assured that ”everything is being done to find (the) perpetrator.”

“The fight against antisemitism is a constant battle,” Macron posted on X.

“We narrowly avoided an absolute tragedy.” Interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said. “Once more, French Jews have been targeted and attacked as a result of their beliefs,”

“If the synagogue had been filled with worshippers… there probably would have been human victims.” Attal added.

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