Knifings, Bombings, and Gun Attacks: Recent Violent Attacks Against European Jews

• On October 9, 2019, two people were killed outside a synagogue in Halle, central Germany, with perpetrators armed with guns firing multiple shots and lobbing at least one grenade into a Jewish cemetery. At least one suspect has been detained, with police increasing their presence in the area and closing a local train station in search of others.
• A Jewish vendor and his son were stabbed by an Egyptian national at the Albert Cuyp street market in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on March 20, 2019. Both men received non-fatal injuries, and the suspect was arrested. The father later told media he was happy to be alive, and that he believed the attacker was determined to kill him and his son.
• In December 2017, Sweden was rocked by a series of attacks against Jewish venues, including a December 9 firebombing attack on a synagogue in Gothenburg. No one was hurt in the incident, with three men, including two refugees and one rejected asylum seeker, handed out prison sentences ranging from 15 months to two years.

• On August 19, 2016, a rabbi in Strasbourg, France was stabbed by a man shouting “Allahu Akbar,” receiving non-life threatening injuries, and the attacker, known to have carried out a separate attack on a member of the local Jewish community in 2010, arrested and charged.
• A 15-year-old Turkish national teen was arrested in Marseille, France in January 2016 after stabbing and attempting to decapitate his teacher, who happened to be Jewish. The 35-year-old victim suffered injuries to his hand and shoulder, but reportedly managed to survive by using a Torah he was carrying as a shield while kicking the assailant. The suspect later claimed that he was acting on behalf of Daesh (ISIS),* an international terrorist group which declared war on Israel, the West, Russia and other countries and attempted to established a ‘caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria. The teen was charged with terrorism.
• The above-mentioned stabbing incident followed a similar attack in November 2015 in which three young men praising Daesh stabbed a Marseille man wearing a kippa in the arms, legs and stomach, with one of the assailants said to have worn a pro-Daesh T-shirt, and all three shouting anti-Semitic slogans during the attack.
• On February 14, 2015, an unidentified gunman shot and killed a Jewish security guard outside the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, with police killing a 22-year-old also suspected of the earlier killing of one and wounding of five police officers at an art exhibition where a cartoonist known for his controversial drawings of the prophet Muhammad was present.

• On February 3, 2015, three French soldiers guarding the Jewish community centre in Nice, France were knifed by a terror suspect sympathetic to Daesh. Authorities later learned that the suspect had attempted to enter Turkey on his way to Syria, but was expelled and sent back to France. The lone wolf terrorist was arrested, and charged with attempted murder, later spouting his hatred for France, the French military, and Jews.
• On January 9, 2015, a gunman voicing his allegiance to Daesh took control of a kosher shop in Porte de Vincennes, Paris, killing four people, taking hostages and threatening to kill them unless his terrorist brothers in arms were freed. Following a four-hour standoff, police stormed the shop, killing the gunman. Nine people were injured in the assault. The suspect was later confirmed to be the same man responsible for the recent killings of a police officer and a nearby civilian.

* Outlawed in Russia and many other countries.