Teen slasher of Jewish teacher in France cited Islamic State

A Jewish man wearing a kippah was attacked by a 15-year-old boy near a synagogue in Marseille, southern France.

The victim sustained minor injuries to his back and hand. Identified only as Benjamin A., he was on his way to the Dvar Avraham synagogue when the attack happened, according to that website.

The teen yelled Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) during the attack, the Marseille branch of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) told Metro newspaper.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called the new attack a “revolting anti-Semitic aggression” while French President Francois Hollande later said such acts were “unspeakable and unjustifiable”.

The incidents point to heightened religious tensions in France less than two months after attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris left 130 people dead and hundreds injured.

In November, a teacher at a Jewish school in Marseilles was stabbed by three people professing support for Islamic State, but his life was not in danger, prosecutors said.

French news publication Le Figaro reported an unnamed police source who said the attacker – arrested shortly after fleeing the scene – was “probably mentally ill”. He was eventually tried and given a 4-year sentence following an outcry among French Jews who demanded the decision not to prosecute him be reviewed and altered, citing victims’ testimonies on his behavior and the absence of signs of mental illness in his past.