A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by French security services over suspected Islamic radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and wounded three other people Friday in northern France, authorities said.

France raised its threat alert to its highest level, and the attack was being investigated by anti-terrorism prosecutors amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen near a Paris area school.

The suspected attacker had been under surveillance since the summer on suspicion of Islamic radicalization, French intelligence services told The Associated Press. He was detained Thursday for questioning based on the monitoring of his phone calls in recent days, but investigators found no sign that he was preparing an attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

“There was a race against the clock. But there was no threat, no weapon, no indication. We did our our job seriously,” Darmanin said on TF1 television. French intelligence suggested a link between the war in the Middle East and the suspect’s decision to attack, the minister said.

The suspect, identified by prosecutors as Mohamed M., was reportedly refusing to speak to investigators. Several others also were in custody Friday, national counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said. Police said the suspect’s younger brother was among those held for questioning.

President Emmanuel Macron said France had been “hit once again by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism.”

“Nearly three years to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty, terrorism has hit a school again and in a context that we’re all aware of,” Macron said at the site of the attack in Arras, a city 185 kilometers north of Paris.

A colleague and a fellow teacher identified the dead educator as Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18. The victim “stepped in and probably saved many lives” but two of the wounded — another teacher and a security guard — were fighting for theirs, according to Macron.

Authorities said the third person wounded worked as a cleaner at the school. The prosecutor said the alleged assailant was a former student there and repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic during the attack.

Police officer Sliman Hamzi was one of the first on the scene. Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer, rushed to the school and saw a male victim lying on the ground outside the school and the attacker being taken away. He said the victim had his throat slit.

“I’m extremely shocked by what I saw,” the officer said. “It was a horrible thing to see this poor man who was killed on the job by a lunatic.”

The National Police force identified the suspect in the attack as a Russian national of Chechen origin who was born in 2003. The French intelligence services told the AP he had been closely watched since the summer with tails and telephone surveillance and was stopped as recently as Thursday for a police check that found no wrongdoing.

Friday’s attack had echoes of Paty’s slaying on Oct 16, 2020 — also a Friday — by an 18-year-old who had become radicalized. Like the suspect in Friday’s stabbings, the earlier attacker had a Chechen background; police shot and killed him.

Martin Doussau, a philosophy teacher at Gambetta-Carnot, said the assailant was armed with two knives and appeared to be hunting specifically for a history teacher. Paty taught history and geography.

“I was chased by the attacker, who … asked me if I teach history,'” said Doussau, who recounted how he barricaded himself behind a door until police used a stun gun to subdue the attacker. “When he turned around and asked me if I am a history teacher, I immediately thought of Samuel Paty.”

The school went into lockdown, and some children were held inside classrooms for hours while distraught parents gathered outside.

“My husband was in tears. There were a lot of people crying, a lot in a state of panic,” said Céline Bourgeois, whose 15-year-old son, Louis, was inside.

Prosecutors said they were considering charges of terror-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.

Macron visited the school, stopping for a moment before the blanket-covered body of the teacher, which was in the parking lot in front of the school, then met with students.

He said police thwarted an “attempted attack” in another region of France after the teacher’s fatal stabbing. He did not provide details, but the Interior Ministry said he was referring to a man armed with a knife arrested coming out of a prayer hall in the Yvelines region west of Paris. The man’s motives weren’t immediately clear, police said.

School attacks are rare in France, and the government asked authorities to heighten vigilance at all schools across the country.

The government also increased its threat alert to its highest level Friday, allowing for larger police and military deployments to protect the country. Darmanin said there was no specific threat that prompted the move, but cited calls by extremists to attack amid the Mideast war.

He said authorities have detained 12 people near schools or places of worship since the Hamas attack on Israel last Saturday, some of whom were armed and were preparing to attack. France has heightened security at hundreds of Jewish sites around the country this week.

The suspect’s telephone conversations in recent days gave no indication of an impending attack, leading intelligence officers to conclude that the assailant decided suddenly on Friday to act, intelligence services told the AP.

The suspect’s father was expelled from France in 2018 for radicalism, the interior minister said.

An older brother is serving a 5-year prison term for terror offences. He was convicted this year of involvement in a plot for an armed attack around the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris that was thwarted by the intelligence services. Other members of the radical Islamist group were also jailed for up to 15 years. He was the group’s only Chechen.

The older brother also was a former pupil at the high school targeted Friday, according to legal records from his trial earlier this year on terror-related charges. Investigation records show that during a school class in 2016 about freedom of expression, the older brother defended a terror attack in 2015 that killed 12 cartoonists at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Friday’s attack came amid heightened tensions around the world over Hamas’ attack on southern Israel and Israel’s blistering military response, which have killed hundreds of civilians on both sides.

Darmanin on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts.

France is estimated to have the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., as well as the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

A moment of silence was held at the opening of a France-Netherlands soccer match Friday night to honor victims of the Israel-Hamas fighting and the slain teacher.

Macron said the school in Arras would reopen as soon as Saturday morning, and he urged the people of France to “stay united.”

“The choice has been made not to give in to terror,” he said. “We must not let anything divide us, and we must remember that schools and the transmission of knowledge are at the heart of this fight against ignorance.”
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Russian authorities on Friday detained three lawyers representing imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny after searching their homes, his allies said, a step that comes amid increasing pressure on the Kremlin’s critics.

The move was an attempt to “completely isolate Navalny,” his ally Ivan Zhdanov said on social media. Navalny, 47, has been behind bars since January 2021, serving a 19-year prison sentence but has been able to get messages out regularly and keep up with the news.

The raids targeting Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Liptser are part of a criminal case on charges of participating in an extremist group, Zhdanov said. All three were detained after the search, apparently as suspects in the case, Navalny’s team said on Telegram. Sergunin later in the day was ordered to pre-trial detention for two months. Authorities have petitioned the court to do the same with Kobzev and Liptser.

Independent Russian media also reported a raid at a law firm that employs another of Navalny’s lawyers, Olga Mikhailova. According to reports, she is currently not in Russia.

Navalny, currently in Penal Colony No. 6 in the Vladimir region east of Moscow, is due to be transferred to a “special security” penal colony, a facility with the highest security level in the Russian penitentiary system, his spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh told The Associated Press.

“If he won’t have access to lawyers, he will end up in complete isolation, the kind no one can really even imagine,” she said.

If his lawyers end up in jail, Navalny will be deprived not only of legal representation but also of his “only connection” to the world outside of prison, Yarmysh said.

“Letters go through poorly and are being censored,” she said. With Navalny being held in a special punitive facility in the colony, he is not allowed any phone calls and hardly any visits from anyone but his lawyers, she said, “and now it means he will be deprived of this, as well.”

For many political prisoners in Russia, regular visits from lawyers — especially in remote regions — are a lifeline that allows them to keep their loved ones informed about their well-being, as well as report and push back against abuse by prison officials.

Navalny is President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, campaigning against official corruption and organizing major anti-Kremlin protests. He 2021 arrest came upon his return to Moscow from Germany, where he recuperated from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He has since been handed three prison terms, most recently on the charges of extremism, and spent months in isolation facilities in the prison over various minor infractions prison officials accused him of.

Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation and a vast network of regional offices were outlawed that same year as extremist groups, a step that exposed anyone involved with them to prosecution.

Navalny has previously rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life.

Kobzev was due in court Friday, along with Navalny, for a hearing on two lawsuits the opposition leader had filed against the penal colony where he’s being held. Navalny said at the hearing, which was later adjourned until November, that the case against his lawyers is indicative “of the state of rule of law in Russia.”

“Just like in Soviet times, not only political activists are being prosecuted and turned into political prisoners, but their lawyers, too,” he said.

Political prisoners under pressure, too

Increasing isolation is something other political prisoners are facing, as well. Last month, imprisoned opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was transferred to a penal colony in Siberia and placed in a tiny “punishment cell,” his lawyers said.

Kara-Murza, 42, was convicted of treason for publicly denouncing Russia’s war in Ukraine and sentenced to 25 years in prison earlier this year. His social media posts are regularly updated with messages from behind bars, and his columns frequently appear in Western media.

But in a penal colony in the Siberian city of Omsk, Kara-Murza is “alone in a small cell, where there’s only a wash basin, a latrine, a chair and a table, and a bed that is strapped to the wall for the entire day,” his lawyer Maria Eismont wrote in a Facebook post last week.

“He is allowed to have only soap, toilet paper, a toothbrush and toothpaste, slippers, one book. Letters, a pen, paper and case files are given to him for only an hour and a half a day. There’s an hour-long walk in the prison yard, where he walks alone as well. The rest of the time he can sit on an uncomfortable chair or pace the cell,” Eismont wrote.

Alexei Gorinov, a former member of a Moscow municipal council, is serving his sentence in similar conditions. Gorinov, 62, was convicted of “spreading false information” about the army in July 2022 over antiwar remarks made at a council session and sentenced to seven years in prison. He’s been in a “punishment cell” repeatedly since early September in IK-2, a penal colony in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.

Last week, Gorinov was transferred to a pretrial detention center in Vladimir after a new criminal probe was launched against him on charges of condoning terrorism, according to his Telegram page. The post didn’t clarify the accusations against Gorinov. In the detention center, he was once again placed in an unheated “punishment cell,” and he will stay there until October 25, the post said.

Andrei Pivovarov, another imprisoned high-profile opposition figure, has been in isolation since January. Pivovarov, 42, was sentenced to four years in prison on the charges of engaging with an “undesirable” organization — a label slapped on the pro-democracy group he headed, Open Russia, shortly before his arrest.

Pivovarov is serving his sentence at IK-7 in the Karelia region of northern Russia and is being held in a “restricted housing unit” in a single cell, his wife Tatyana Usmanova told AP. She has seen him only once since his arrest in May 2021: They were married in July 2023 and allowed a three-day visit.

Pivovarov is not allowed to have phone calls and gets only about two hours a day for writing letters, which go through prison censors to get mailed, so if not for the lawyers visiting him regularly, Usmanova said, she would have “really long gaps between those letters during which I wouldn’t at all know whether he’s OK or not OK, healthy or not healthy, alive or not.”

Jailed artist and musician Sasha Skochilenko, meanwhile, faces a different kind of pressure. Arrested in April 2022 on charges of spreading false information about the army after replacing supermarket price tags with antiwar slogans to protest the invasion, Skochilenko is on trial, with almost daily court hearings that often prevent her from getting meals.

At a hearing last month, the judge called an ambulance to the courthouse after Skochilenko fell ill, telling the court it was her second day without any food. The 33-year-old suffers from several health problems, including a congenital heart defect and celiac disease, requiring a gluten-free diet.

Skochilenko’s supporters have urged the judge’s recusal, saying the defendant is going through “torture.”
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, visiting the Black Sea port of Odesa, vowed on Friday to improve Ukraine’s air defenses and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv was working to strengthen its position in the Black Sea so that it can continue grain exports, which are vital to ensuring budget revenues following a surge in defense spending after Russia’s invasion last year.

“We are working with partners to protect properly these corridors, and strengthen our positions in the Black Sea, and it also applies to the protection of Odesa’s skies and in the region as a whole,” he told a joint press conference alongside Rutte.

Ukraine’s government outlined details of Russian attacks on infrastructure and the results of the alternative “humanitarian” corridor organized by Ukraine since Russia abandoned a U.N.-backed accord on safe Black Sea grain shipments in July.

It said Russia has destroyed almost 300,000 metric tons of grain since July in attacks on Ukraine’s port facilities and on ships. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ukraine’s allegations.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said that since the deal ran out, Russian forces had hit six civilian ships and 150 port and grain facilities during 17 attacks, destroying crops headed for export.

Kubrakov said 21 grain-loaded vessels had already used the new grain corridor.

The Odesa region has came under frequent Russian missile and drone attacks. Zelenskyy and Rutte visited a damaged port.

Rutte said the Netherlands would provide more Patriot air defense missiles to help Ukraine defend itself in the winter. The Netherlands would also help Ukraine acquire patrol boats, he said, to help keep the grain export route safe.

The Netherlands has provided Ukraine with financial aid and weapons during the war and has led efforts to help train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.

Ukraine’s humanitarian corridor was initially announced to release ships that do not carry grain, were not covered by the grain deal and had been trapped in port for more than a year, but vessels seeking to load grain have also used the corridor.

Zelenskyy also said Ukraine was nearing an agreement with some partners on insurance for ships using the corridor but gave no details.
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The White House on Friday accused North Korea of shipping weapons to Russia, near the Ukraine border. Its claims are based on an image released Friday showing a shipment from an ammunition depot in North Korea, or DPRK, that was loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved by rail to a depot along Russia’s southwestern border. The delivery took place between September 7 and October 1, the U.S. says.

“We condemn the DPRK for providing Russia with this military equipment, which will be used to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilians, and further Russia’s illegitimate war,” National Security Council Director of Strategic Communications John Kirby said Friday.

Kirby has disclosed that in recent weeks, North Korea has provided Russia with “more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions.”

“This expanding military partnership between the DPRK and Russia, including any technology transfers from Russia to the DPRK, undermines regional stability and the global non-proliferation regime,” Kirby warned.

He noted that Washington is in lockstep with allies and partners to counter arms deals between Russia and North Korea by sanctioning individuals and entities working to facilitate such arms deals.

“We will not allow the DPRK to aid Russia’s war machine in secret, and the world should know about the support that Russia may again provide the DPRK in return,” Kirby said.

Targeting Odesa

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, during a visit to the Black Sea port of Odesa, pledged to bolster Ukraine’s air defenses and to increase the security of a “humanitarian corridor” for grain exports.

Zelenskyy said Kyiv was working to strengthen its position in the Black Sea so that it can continue grain exports, which are a vital source of revenue for Ukraine’s defense spending following Russia’s invasion last year.

“We are working with partners to protect properly these corridors, and strengthen our positions in the Black Sea, and it also applies to the protection of Odesa’s skies and in the region as a whole,” Zelenskyy said.

The Odesa region has become a frequent target of Russian missile and drone attacks.

Russia has hit six civilian ships, 150 port and grain facilities and destroyed upwards of 300,000 tons of grain since Moscow quit a deal allowing safe Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, the Kyiv government said on Friday.

In a statement, it said 21 vessels had been already loaded with grain for exports and used a new “humanitarian” grain corridor in the Black Sea announced by Kyiv in August. It said a total of 25 ships had entered Ukrainian ports for loading.

The Netherlands will deliver more Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine to help the country defend itself against Russian air strikes during the winter, Rutte said on Friday.

“This winter, Russia will try to hurt Ukraine as much as possible. So, the Netherlands will supply extra Patriot missiles, so that Ukraine can defend itself against Russia’s barbaric airstrikes,” Rutte said after a meeting with Zelenskyy in Odesa.

Rutte also said the Netherlands would help Ukraine acquire patrol boats to keep the shipping route for grain exports safe.

Funding the effort

European Union leaders meeting later in October will demand “decisive progress” on using Russian assets frozen by sanctions to help Ukraine, according to their draft statement, addressing a matter that has been stuck for months.

The United States and Britain last month showed support for an EU plan to tax windfall profits generated by frozen Russian sovereign assets to finance Ukraine as Kyiv battles a full-scale Russian invasion begun in February 2022.

Finance ministers of the Group of Seven, or G7, industrialized countries meeting in Morocco on Thursday estimated $280 billion worth of such assets had been frozen. They said they expected more work in the coming months to find legally sound ways of using them to aid Ukraine.

Belgium, not a member of the G7 group, where most frozen Russian central bank assets are held, said it expects to collect $2.4 billion in taxes on the assets and use them to help Ukraine’s reconstruction process, a spokesperson for Belgium’s prime minister said Wednesday.

Britain is planning to increase its military presence in northern Europe, including deploying 20,000 troops to the region next year, to help protect critical infrastructure at a time of growing concern over Russian sabotage.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier on Friday met fellow leaders as part of the Joint Expeditionary Force, or JEF, defense cooperation summit on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

JEF, a defense cooperation group between the Nordic and Baltic states, the Netherlands and Britain, was meeting days after a pipeline and a data cable in the Gulf of Finland were damaged due to “outside activity,” stoking concerns about security in the wider Nordic region.

“This week, we have seen yet again that our security cannot be taken for granted. It is vital that we stand united against those with malign intent,” Sunak said in a statement.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters Friday that Sweden has done all it can do to satisfy an agreement with Turkey that will secure Sweden’s path to NATO membership, and the matter is in the hands of Turkey’s parliament. 

Kristersson made the comments a day after NATO’s defense ministerial meeting concluded in Brussels with no further movement on Sweden’s membership.  

The Swedish prime minister said Friday that his country had satisfied its obligations per an agreement with Turkey made in July that allowed its application to proceed. He said there is nothing further they can do. He expressed optimism the issue would be resolved soon. 

Sweden, along with fellow Nordic nation Finland had applied for NATO membership in 2022. But Turkey held up approval of their application, claiming Sweden had been too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups Turkey considers security threats. Membership applications to NATO must be unanimously approved by all 31 members. 

Following a meeting ahead of a July NATO Summit in Vilnius, Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan relented after Sweden agreed to take steps to ensure the militant groups were not operating in their nation, along with an agreement with the United States to sell Turkey F-16 fighter jets. 

Erdogan said he would send Sweden’s application protocol on to parliament for its consideration. But when Turkish lawmakers opened their latest session at the beginning of this month ratification of the Swedish application was not on the agenda. 

The U.S. fighter-jet agreement might now be the hold up. Some members of the U.S. Congress — as of last month — balked at the sale of the F-16’s, citing tensions between Turkey and Greece. The Turkish president indicated last month that ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership is now linked to the sale of the jets. 

In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday at the conclusion the ministerial meeting in Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he spoke with Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler during Thursday’s meeting and he “made it clear that Turkey would stand by the [[July]] agreement.”  

Stoltenberg said he now expects a speedy ratification of the agreement. 

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France Presse. 
…

German officials say seven people died, while several others were injured after a van, believed to have been driven by a suspected people-smuggler, overturned while trying to avoid being stopped by federal police. 

Authorities say the driver lost control of the vehicle near Ampfing, east of Munich on the A94 highway, headed toward the Austrian border.

The A94 is a known smuggling route.  

More than 20 people, including children, were in the van.

The Associated Press reported Syrians and Turks were in the van, and the driver was a stateless resident of Austria. 

Europe has experienced a rise in migrant arrivals recently. Germany is the destination for many migrants. 
…

The British Defense Ministry said Friday that it has been 21 days since Russian Air Force Long Range Aviation launched a strike against Ukraine.

There was a similar lull in strikes earlier this year, from March 9 to April 28. That 51-day break in strikes was “likely” due to a depleted stock of capable munitions after a winter campaign against Ukraine’s national infrastructure, the ministry said.

However, the current break, according to the British ministry, is likely due to Russia “preserving existing stocks” of AS-23 missiles and using the time to increase “useable stocks” before heavy winter strikes against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Thursday that the U.S. has placed sanctions on companies that have violated globally established price caps for Russian oil, calling it important “to continue the pressure and deprive Russia of the ability to finance aggression through any energy resources.”

Zelenskyy also said “a long-awaited step for historical truth” was realized Thursday with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s recognition “of the Holodomor of 1932-33 as the genocide of the Ukrainian people.” The Holodomor, which means “death by starvation,” was a manmade famine under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin that is thought to have killed more than 3 million Ukrainians and many in the country call an act of genocide.

A Russian official on Thursday said that debris from a downed Ukrainian drone killed three people in the Belgorod region of Russia.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor, said on Telegram that the debris destroyed a house and that three bodies were recovered from the rubble.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack, with air defenses downing a drone over Belgorod.

Belgorod is one of the Russian regions that borders Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said Thursday that Russia attacked overnight with 33 drones targeting multiple regions, and that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 28 of the aerial vehicles.

One of the targeted regions was Odesa, in southern Ukraine, where officials reported damage to port infrastructure and residential buildings. At least one person was injured.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian aerial attacks.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The International Olympic Committee, or IOC, on Thursday banned the Russian Olympic Committee after the ROC recognized regional organizations from four annexed Ukrainian territories. The ban takes effect immediately.

On Oct. 5, the ROC recognized the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, which are under the authority of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. This move constituted a breach in the Olympic Charter, according to the IOC.

Ukraine and the West denounced Russia’s referendums in the four regions in 2022 as a sham and decried the annexation as illegal.

The ROC will be suspended until further notice, meaning that they will not receive any funding as “they will no longer be able to operate as an Olympic Committee,” according to an IOC statement.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the IOC banned from international competition athletes from Russia as well as Belarus.

However, as of March 2023, the IOC has held the position that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to compete in international events — with no flag, emblem or anthem — stating that athletes should not be punished for the actions of their governments.

The IOC’s decision on Thursday to suspend the ROC does not change their position on Russian or Belarusian athletes.

“The suspension of the ROC does not affect the participation of independent athletes,” IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said at a news conference.

Ukraine supported today’s IOC ruling. The head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, called the move “an important decision,” via the Telegram messaging app.

“We communicate with our partners that sports cannot be out of politics when a terrorist country commits genocide of Ukraine and uses athletes as propaganda,” Yermak said.

The Russian Olympic Committee condemned the action taken by the IOC, claiming the suspension to be politically charged.

“Today the IOC made another counterproductive decision with obvious political motivations,” the ROC said in a statement.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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Turkey is offering to mediate the crisis in Israel. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces growing international scrutiny for hosting senior members of Hamas, designated by the U.S. and others as a terrorist organization. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Farmers say the harvest season just ending in Ukraine was a good one, but they face another year of falling profits due to the skyrocketing costs of getting their products to international markets during wartime. Lesia Bakalets reports from the Kyiv region. VOA footage by Yevhenii Shynkar.
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Russia had remained largely silent on the outbreak of hostilities between Israeli forces and Hamas, but the Kremlin this week gave signs that it is weighing its role – and its relationships – with Israel, Hamas and Iran. Without giving a date, Russian officials have announced an upcoming visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Luis Ramirez narrates this report from the VOA Moscow bureau. 
Camera: Ricardo Marquina 
…

A Russian official said Thursday that debris from a downed Ukrainian drone killed three people in the Belgorod region of Russia.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor, said on Telegram that the debris destroyed a house and that three bodies were recovered from the rubble.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack, with air defenses downing a drone over Belgorod.

Belgorod is one of the Russian regions that borders Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said Thursday that Russia attacked overnight with 33 drones targeting multiple regions, and that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 28 of the aerial vehicles.

One of the targeted regions was Odesa, in southern Ukraine, where officials reported damage to port infrastructure and residential buildings. At least one person was injured.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian aerial attacks.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived in China on Thursday, looking to manage the bloc’s “de-risking” strategy with its largest trading partner while laying the foundations for a planned summit this year.

The visit comes just days after war broke out between Israel and Hamas, prompting Borrell to assemble an emergency meeting of European foreign ministers. China has called on all parties to “cease fire.”

Borrell’s trip, which was postponed twice this year and is expected to last until Saturday, will involve talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and will tackle issues including bilateral relations, global challenges and trade.

The EU says the visit — the latest in a string of high-level EU-China dialogues — “should culminate in the EU-China summit later this year.”

“Just landed in China to co-chair the EU-China Strategic Dialogue with my counterpart Minister Wang Yi,” Borrell said on his verified account on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“An important visit to discuss EU-China relations, key regional and global challenges with government authorities, scholars and business representatives,” he added.

Relations between the EU and China have been heavily strained since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, which Beijing has stopped short of condemning.

Rather than halting dialogue completely, Brussels is pushing for an approach with Beijing that balances its concerns over relying too much on China while also maintaining ties with the world’s second-largest economy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has defined the position as “de-risking rather than decoupling” from China.

‘Volatile’ world

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that “China welcomes” Borrell’s visit, adding that his trip would “inject new impetus into the two sides’ joint efforts to address challenges and maintain world peace and stability.”

“The world is currently facing a volatile and turbulent situation,” Wang said.

“China and the EU, as two major global forces, markets and civilizations, have broad common interests in… promoting global development and prosperity and advancing human civilization.”

Von der Leyen — who carried out her own official visit to China in April — announced last month that the EU was launching an investigation into Beijing’s provision of subsidies for its rapidly rising electric vehicle industry.

European leaders have said that the Chinese subsidies have resulted in unfair competition in their automotive market.

But Beijing has criticized the investigation, warning that it will harm its trading relationship with the bloc.

And earlier this month, the EU named sensitive technologies that it must defend from rivals, including artificial intelligence.

Borrell’s visit is also likely to include dialogue on the ongoing war in Ukraine. China has sought to position itself as a neutral party, but the EU has been critical of its stance.

The bloc’s trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Beijing’s position was “affecting the country’s image” during his visit to China last month.
…

The United States is providing Ukraine with up to $200 million in additional military aid in a package announced Wednesday, as the Biden administration tried to temper concerns that the growing needs from Ukraine and now Israel could spread the U.S. too thin. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.
…

The European Union has expanded its warnings that tech companies must remove illegal content from their platforms, or risk facing severe legal penalties.

Following the militant Islamist group Hamas’ attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, social media firms have seen a surge in misinformation related to the conflict, including doctored images and mislabeled videos, alongside images of graphic violence.

On Tuesday, EU industry chief Thierry Breton told Elon Musk to curb disinformation on his messaging platform X, warning it was being used to disseminate illegal content and false information in the wake of recent violence in the Middle East.

Breton issued a similar warning to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, urging the company to ensure strict compliance with European law.

In his letters to Musk and Zuckerberg, Breton said their companies had 24 hours to inform the EU how they were stopping harmful content on their platforms.

Now, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, has sought to remind all social media companies they are legally required to prevent the spread of harmful content related to Hamas.

“Content circulating online that can be associated to Hamas qualifies as terrorist content, is illegal, and needs to be removed under both the DSA [Digital Services Act] and TCO [Terrorist Content Online Regulation,” a commission spokesperson told Reuters.

“The commission will fully apply the DSA and monitor the full implementation of the TCO. The commission urges online platforms to fully comply with EU rules.”

The recently implemented DSA requires large online platforms, including X and Meta’s Facebook, to remove illegal content and to take measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse.

Any firm found in breach of the DSA faces a fine worth up to 6% of global turnover. Repeat offenders could even be banned from operating in Europe altogether.

It is unclear if Breton has sent similar messages to other social media companies designated under the DSA.
…

Human rights advocate Oleg Orlov was fined about $1,500 on Wednesday for criticizing the war in Ukraine, the latest step in a relentless crackdown on activists, independent journalists and opposition figures.

Orlov, co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, was convicted of publicly “discrediting” the Russian military after a Facebook post in which he denounced the invasion of Ukraine.

A law adopted shortly after the Kremlin sent troops across the border made it a criminal offense if committed repeatedly within a year; Orlov has been fined twice for antiwar protests before facing criminal charges.

A Moscow court began hearing the case in March, and Orlov faced up to five years in prison if convicted. In closing arguments Wednesday, however, the prosecution asked the court to impose a fine of 250,000 rubles (about $2,500).

“Thank God!” gasped Orlov’s wife when she heard that in court, according to the Russian news outlet Mediazona.

Several hours later, the judge delivered the verdict and ordered Orlov to pay an even lower fine — about $1,500.

Memorial, one of the oldest and the most renowned Russian rights organizations, was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.

Memorial was founded in the Soviet Union in 1987 to ensure that victims of Communist Party repression would be remembered. It has continued to compile information on human rights abuses and track the fate of political prisoners in Russia while facing a Kremlin crackdown in recent years.

The group had been declared a “foreign agent,” a designation that brings additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Over the years, it was ordered to pay massive fines for alleged violations of the “foreign agent” law.

Russia’s Supreme Court ordered it shut down in December 2021, a move that sparked an outcry at home and abroad.

Memorial and its supporters have called the trial against Orlov politically motivated. His defense team included Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

Addressing the court Wednesday, Orlov rejected the charges and stressed he does “not regret” speaking out against the war. He called the punishment the prosecution asked for “extremely lenient,” compared with long prison terms handed to other activists and opposition figures, and “a small price to pay for expressing a position I believe to be true.”

After the verdict was announced, he left the courtroom applauded by his supporters. Orlov promised to appeal the “soft, but unlawful and unjust” sentence and urged his supporters not to forget about political prisoners who have to spend years behind bars.

After invading Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin doubled down on suppressing dissent, adopting legislation effectively outlawing any criticism of what it insisted on calling its “special military operation.”

Since then, nearly 8,000 Russians have faced misdemeanor charges and over 700 people have been implicated in criminal cases for speaking out about or protesting the war, according to the OVD Info human rights and legal aid group.

The authorities have also used the new law to target opposition figures, human rights activists and independent media. Top critics have been sentenced to long prison terms, rights groups have been forced to shut down operations, independent news sites were blocked and independent journalists have left the country, fearing prosecution.

Many of those exiles have been tried, convicted and sentenced to prison terms in absentia. The scale of the crackdown has been unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia.
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Britain’s King Charles III will meet with Kenyan President William Ruto in Nairobi in about three weeks. Charles will address “painful aspects” of Britain’s colonial past, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday.

During the four-day visit, scheduled for October 31 to November 3, Charles and Ruto will tour the Nairobi National Park and attend a state banquet. The two are expected to discuss the climate crisis, the importance of conservation efforts and working together on national security, Chris Fitzgerald, the king’s deputy private secretary, said in a press conference.

Charles will also acknowledge the fraught history between the two nations a decade after Britain paid reparations for the horrors of the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, a conflict in which thousands of Kenyans were slain by British authorities.

“His majesty will take time during the visit to deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya,” Fitzgerald said. 

Nairobi has a particular significance for the royal family. In 1952, while in Kenya, then-Princess Elizabeth, Charles’s mother, learned that she had become queen upon the death of her father, King George VI. Charles himself visited the East African nation in 1971. 

The meeting comes as Kenya celebrates 60 years of independence from Britain. Nairobi is Charles’s latest destination for diplomacy after successful royal tours in Germany in March and France last month.

This is the king’s latest effort to bolster ties with former British colonies. In 2022, Charles attended a meeting for the heads of Commonwealth governments. 

The Commonwealth is a group of 56 independent countries, including Kenya, the majority of which were once under British rule. 

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters. 
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A convenient location with the necessary infrastructure for military exercises, both on land and in sea, made Iceland a perfect venue for two-week NATO military exercises that ended earlier this month. Valentina Vasileva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Elena Matusovsky.
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China has invested tens of billions of dollars in Europe under its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ – which is marking its tenth birthday. While the Chinese money has seen new infrastructure built, there is concern over debt payments in some countries and a trend to block Beijing’s acquisition of key strategic assets. Henry Ridgwell has more from London. (Camera: Henry Ridgwell; Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov)
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President Joe Biden said Tuesday that “we have Israel’s back,” as Washington attempts to defuse tensions in the Middle East after a stunning terrorist attack by Hamas militants. More than 1,000 people, including at least 14 Americans, have been killed by Hamas militants who stormed over the border Saturday, killing and kidnapping civilians and security forces. 

VOA Ukrainian Service’s Iuliia Iarmolenko spoke Tuesday to John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, shortly before Biden addressed the nation in a televised address. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Can you lay out a roadmap of how the United States is planning to address the situation in Israel? Are you preparing for a long haul or possible regional work?

John Kirby: Well, how long this conflict goes on is really something for the Israelis to speak to, not the United States. What I think you’ll hear from the president today is that we stand solidly and strongly behind Israel, their right to defend themselves, to live in peace and security, to go after these Hamas terrorists that perpetrated this barbaric violence on Israeli citizens, just innocent people going about their lives, and that we’re going to, we’re going to continue to support their needs. There’s already one tranche of military aid on its way to Israel, it should be there soon. I suspect there’ll be others. The president will talk about that in his remarks. We also are mindful that there’s a hostage situation going on. And this is not like any typical hostage situation; it’s also a war zone. So, that’s going to complicate recovery efforts, and the president will talk about how we are offering our support, our advice and counsel. We have terrific hostage recovery experts here in the United States, and we’re willing to chip in that expertise should the Israelis find that required.

VOA: The administration has been pretty cautious in describing Iran’s role in the Hamas attack on Israel. Why? And any signs of possible Russia’s involvement? 

Kirby: Make no mistake, Iran has a degree of complicity here. They’ve been supporting Hamas for many years: training, tools, weapons, capabilities. So, nobody’s walking away from the fact that Hamas wouldn’t be able to function if it wasn’t for the support that they get from Iran. What we have said and our Israeli counterparts have said as well is we just haven’t seen any direct evidence that they were involved specifically in these attacks. But we’re going to keep looking at this. We’ll keep monitoring the intelligence picture and the evidence, and we’ll see where it takes us. 

VOA: How about Russia’s involvement? 

Kirby: We see no indication that Russia was at all directly involved in these attacks either.

VOA: There are reports that President Biden did not urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to exercise restraint in Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack. Will the administration communicate any concerns or guidance before Israel’s anticipated ground operation in Gaza? 

Kirby: Well, again, without talking to Israeli military operations — that’s for them to speak to — I think we all recognize given the threats that they faced and the violence that they’ve been dealing with in the last few hours, that they have to respond aggressively against Hamas, and you’re seeing that play out. They are doing that. Nobody wants to see innocent civilians killed or hurt. Sadly, there’s been too much of that already. Almost 1,000 Israelis now butchered and slaughtered, raped and tortured in front of their family members, and nobody wants to see innocent life taken. And there, as I said, there’s been too much of it. 

One of the great things about our relationship with Israel is that we’re two vibrant democracies and we mutually believe in things like the respect for innocent life and the rule of law. And we’re always stronger together, our two countries, when we show that to the world, that we do respect innocent life and that we do respect not only the rule of law, but the law of war. So, you know, we’ll obviously, we’ll again provide the kind of support that we need to provide to Israel, and we will always stand up for the opposite example of what Hamas is doing, which is not only no respect for life, but the wanton, indiscriminate, murder, butchery of human life. 

VOA: But is it going to be communicated to Prime Minister Netanyahu? 

Kirby: We, again, this is something that we obviously share with Israel, and you know, these are, these are two countries, two partners that certainly have very open lines of communication, and this is one of the great things about our relationship.

VOA: On Ukraine, you said yesterday the administration wants to make sure that there is no gap in assistance to Ukraine, not even a day. Are you confident that that’s going to be the case? Given all the situation that transpired in Israel? Is the administration considering pairing Ukraine and Israel aid requests for faster approval in Congress? 

Kirby: It is important that Ukraine continue to get the aid that it needs. They are involved in still a counteroffensive in facing Russian aggression on their own soil. And you’re right, we don’t want to see a single lapse. That’s why we’re going to continue to work with Congress to see if we can get supplemental funding. We’ve got enough right now to get us through some time. But as I said the other day, it’s not indefinite, and that’s the reason we made a supplemental request. How those conversations with Congress play out, what that looks like, I can’t say at this point. Both Ukraine and Israel are important. Both need American military assistance, and it’s important to our national security interest, let alone theirs, but ours too, that they get that assistance. So, we’re going to continue to work with Congress.

VOA: But is there communication to put these two funding requests together for their faster approval?

Kirby: Yeah, I’m not going to talk about the process here of the conversations that we’re having with Congress. Both countries need U.S. military assistance in terms of weapons and capabilities. Both are under assault. Both have every right to defend themselves and their citizens. And in that defense, our national security interests are actually benefited. We’re going to continue to have these conversations with Congress. How that’s going to play out I just can’t say, and I wouldn’t talk about the specifics of the conversations that we’re having.

VOA: One more question on that. Does the administration consider requesting bigger funding for Ukraine, so-called “one and done” aid package till the next election in the United States?

Kirby: Again, I don’t want to get into the conversations that we’re having with members of Congress. We already submitted a supplemental for the first quarter of the fiscal year here this fall. We believe that that supplemental request was adequate to the task. We urge Congress to pass that supplemental funding, but as for what other conversations might be happening, I’d really rather not get into that.

VOA: OK. And you said yesterday also that Ukraine has some weeks of good weather to be productive and efficient with their counteroffensive. Isn’t this a good time to provide ATACMS [missiles] for Ukraine?

Kirby: Again, ATACMS are not off the table. We are having continued reviews of the additional capabilities that Ukraine needs. I’m not in a position to announce anything with respect to ATACMS. I would just tell you that as the war has evolved and changed, the capabilities that we have provided Ukraine has evolved and changed, and I would expect that that change will continue. 

VOA: Including ATACMS?

Kirby: I’m just going to leave it there. 

VOA: OK. And just let me ask this: You said yesterday that all energy right now is on helping Israel to defend itself. Do you think that there is a possibility that actors like Russia and China might use this opportunity when all eyes are on Israel to their advantage, and how to prevent that?

Kirby: It is certainly possible that other nations, other actors that are hostile to Israel could try to take advantage of the situation. And that is one of the reasons that the president, as commander-in-chief, ordered a carrier strike group into the eastern Mediterranean to send a strong signal to anybody who might be thinking that this is a good opportunity to get involved and try to broaden this conflict beyond just Hamas, and that they are to rethink that plan. They ought to rethink those considerations. So I can’t speak to anything specific with respect to Russia or China’s involvement one way or the other, but we have made it clear, and we’ll continue to make it clear that we take our national security interests in the region very, very seriously. 
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Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Tuesday a leak leading to the shutdown of a natural gas pipeline from Estonia to Finland this weekend was probably caused by “external” activity.

Last year, a series of underwater blasts ruptured three pipelines that carried natural gas from Russia to Western Europe at a time of high geopolitical tensions as Moscow cut gas supplies to Europe.

While the government cautioned against leaping to any conclusions, saying it seemed unlikely that explosives were the cause, the Norwegian seismological institute NORSAR said Monday it detected a “probable explosion” in the area of the leak.

Niinisto said that he had been in touch with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and that the military alliance was ready to assist in the investigation.

He said that the cause of the damage was not yet clear, and that Finland and Estonia were cooperating in an ongoing investigation.

Estonian officials confirmed Monday that underwater telecommunications lines linking to Finland were also damaged.

The two damaged elements “are in very different locations, although the timing [of the incidents] is quite close,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said at a press briefing.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters later that a preliminary assessment suggested that “the discovered damage could not have been caused by normal use of the pipeline or pressure fluctuations.”

He said the leak was located in the Finnish exclusive economic zone.

When asked about the likelihood of Russian involvement, Orpo said it was important to “gather all the information that is available and not to jump to conclusions at this stage.”

Timo Kilpelainen, head of the investigation department at the National Bureau of Investigation, said at the same press conference that there were “no indications that explosives were used in the act.”

Stoltenberg posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the military alliance was “sharing information and stands ready to support Allies concerned.”

European Council President Charles Michel also offered his “full support and solidarity” to the affected countries and called for “a full investigation” in a message on X, formerly Twitter. 

Finland’s gas network operator, state-owned Gasgrid, said Sunday that the Balticconnector pipeline had been shut down over a suspected leak.

The operator said “an unusual drop in pressure” had been noticed in the pipeline running along the seabed of the Gulf of Finland.

Gasgrid said the Finnish gas system was stable, with supply secured through a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Inkoo.

In late September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured three of the four pipelines that make up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, a major conduit for Russian natural gas exports to Western Europe, spewing gas into the Baltic Sea.

The pipelines had been at the center of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Because the leaks occurred in their exclusive economic zones, Denmark and Sweden opened probes into the attack, as did Germany.

All three countries have kept a tight lid on their investigations, which analysts say is unsurprising given the potential diplomatic fallout of what they might uncover.

Telecom operator Elisa also confirmed Tuesday it was experiencing a disruption caused by a “cable break” during the weekend.

“The disruption has no impact on Elisa’s services, as it is a backup connection,” the operator said in a statement.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his counterpart in Romania Tuesday for talks on regional security and to strengthen bilateral ties against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of his country.

He described the partnership between the two countries as key to “stability for Europe and beyond” on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after meeting with President Klaus Iohannis in the capital, Bucharest.

The two discussed security in the Black Sea region, economic cooperation, shared infrastructure projects, and Ukraine’s requests for military support, Zelenskyy told reporters after the meetings. He also thanked Romania for providing both military and humanitarian support to his war-torn country.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president described the NATO and European Union member country on X as “a friend who came to our help on our darkest day and whose support gets stronger with time.”

In recent weeks, Russia has carried out sustained attacks on Ukraine’s Danube River ports — located just across the river from Romania — as Moscow aims to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets. Romania has confirmed drone fragment findings on its territory, the type used by the Russian army near its border with Ukraine.

“In Romania, it is well known how dangerous Russian terrorism is, how dangerous the drones and missiles are that attack the villages near the Romanian border,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukrainian pilots will be trained in Romania, and I discussed this with the Romanian president. We discussed our military requests.”

In July, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense said the country aims to open a regional training hub for F-16 fighter jet pilots from fellow NATO countries and other partners, including Ukraine.

For his part, Iohannis said Romania is “focused on helping Ukraine win the war” against Russia and that supporting Ukraine is in his country’s strategic interest. “Strengthening Ukraine’s security means strengthening Romania’s security.”

Ukraine and Romania signed an agreement in August to try and boost Kyiv’s grain exports through Romania after Russia withdrew from a wartime agreement a month earlier that ensured safe passage through the Black Sea. Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta has become a key transport route for the war-torn nation’s grain amid the war.

Ukraine is a major global supplier of wheat, barley, corn and vegetable oil and has struggled since Russia’s invasion to get its food products to parts of the world in need. After Russia blocked the grain’s Black Sea passage, that left more expensive overland routes through Europe as the main path for Ukraine’s exports.

The Ukrainian president’s trip to Romania is his first official visit since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year. In the wake of the invasion, millions of Ukrainian refugees fled to Romania before moving on to other countries.

Around 85,000 Ukrainian refugees are currently registered in Romania, under the EU’s temporary protection scheme.
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On October 15, Polish voters will choose their next parliament which will form Poland’s new government. One of two main political forces — the Law and Justice Party or the Civic Coalition — will likely have to form a coalition to govern Poland, the largest post-communist EU and NATO member, and a critical supporter of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion. Myroslava Gongadze in Warsaw explains why these elections are important. Camera and video editing by Daniil Batushchak.
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Pausing during an early morning walk in northeastern Paris, Patrick Street assessed the fallout of the Hamas attack on Israel, thousands of miles away, which ruined the tail end of Jewish Sukkot celebrations with his family.

“There’s no limit to the cruelty,” said Street, who has family in Israel, of the Hamas strikes that killed hundreds of Israelis— even as he recalled previous antisemitic attacks in France.

“It’s just gratuitous hatred,” he said. “Kill just to kill.”

As leaders across Europe condemn Hamas’ assault and express solidarity with Israel, Jews like Street worry about the potential reaction at home — in a region that is no stranger to Islamist attacks. So do some French Muslims, as the death toll mounts in both Israel and Gaza, and the Israeli government mounts a fearsome counterattack in the Palestinian territory.

In countries like Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain, governments are tightening security for Jewish institutions, banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations for fear of violence and calling for zero tolerance against antisemitism.

European cities have also held rallies for peace and the Israeli victims in Saturday’s early morning attack by Hamas. And fears are mounting that a spreading conflict in the Middle East could have effects on European soil.

“No violence, no riots and no hatred on German streets,” wrote the Central Council of Jews in Germany, whose Jewish population numbers about 100,000. The Council said it was in “intensive contact” with German authorities.

Concern about a potential uptick in violence is especially high in France, home to Western Europe’s largest populations of Jews and Muslims — and where a raft of antisemitic attacks over the past two decades helped drive thousands of Jews to resettle in Israel.

“The fear is real,” said Michel Serfaty, a French rabbi who heads a Jewish-Muslim friendship association, noting especially the country’s longstanding fight against radical Islam. “We are trying to stay serene.”

For now, authorities are playing down those concerns.

“There is no blatant threat” to France’s Jewish community for the moment, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told a local radio station Monday. Still, he described roughly a dozen antisemitic acts that had been registered over the weekend. Police have been dispatched to guard Jewish schools and synagogues across the country.

Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, similarly said he was not “excessively worried” about attacks against the roughly half-million Jews in the country.

Even so, “we are vigilant,” Arfi told France Info radio, of a potential uptick in violence by terrorists or other assailants. “In their eyes,” he added, “attacking French Jews is a way of doing their share in the fight against Israel.”

On Monday, thousands of people gathered in Paris in support of Israel, with others held elsewhere in France. The rally was attended by an array of French politicians who have largely deplored the Hamas strikes.

A rare holdout, the far-left France Unbowed Party, has been blasted for qualifying the Hamas attacks as taking place within “intensifying Israeli occupation policy.” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called the party’s response a “revolting ambiguity.”

Politically fraught

Tensions in the Middle East have long boomeranged in France, where many of the country’s roughly 500,000 Jews and up to 6 million Muslims hail from similar North African roots.

The country has seen a spate of antisemitic acts in recent decades, and a rise in radical Islam, especially during the spreading grip of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In 2012, three students and a rabbi were gunned down by an Islamist militant in the southern city of Toulouse. In early 2015 another militant, Amedy Coulibaly, killed four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris.

Over the past decade roughly 30,000 Jews have reportedly made their Aliyah, or immigration, to Israel, although the departures dropped off earlier this year. Muslims say they are also victims of slurs and attacks, although these are smaller in number and intensity.

Patrick Street, who was celebrating the Jewish holidays with family in Paris, said he kept a low profile in his home city of Lyon.

“I wouldn’t walk around with a kippah on my head,” he said. “I put on a baseball cap. I’m discreet.”

A few years ago, many mainstream French Muslims and Jews came together in demonstrations following a spate of Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere that killed hundreds of people of all faiths. France’s Muslim population is offering a more muted and mixed response the Hamas attacks against the Jewish state, given widespread support Palestinians still have across the Arab and Muslim worlds.

At an outdoor food market in Paris’ 19th arrondissement, fruit seller Hichem Gafef from Cairo said he was simply saddened by the brutality.

“We Egyptians made peace with Israel in 1979,” he said. “If there are problems, they need to be solved by politicians.”

Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, condemned the death of “innocent people on both sides,” referring to both Israeli victims but also Palestinians killed in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. But he specifically refused to condemn Hamas.

“What is happening is distressing,” Zekri said in an interview. “We need a durable peace with a Palestinian and Israeli state that live side by side.”

Tareq Oubrou, rector of the Bordeaux Mosque, similarly condemned “all terrorist and savage action to the peaceful, innocent and weak.” In a response by text message, he did not single out a perpetrator.

One Muslim woman who lives outside Paris, and who has long worked to build ties with her Jewish counterparts, said many like herself were fearful of speaking out. She declined to be identified, for fear of retaliation.

“We’re not free,” she said, describing worries of being targeted by fellow Muslims who were suspicious of French Jews and held strong, anti-Israel views. “I can’t open my mouth, because the penalties are really heavy. We’re afraid for our families.”

Serfaty, the rabbi from the Jewish-Muslim friendship association, said the only Muslim leader to reach out to him since the Hamas attack was the imam in the French suburb where he lives.

“He came to tell me of his solidarity and his attachment to the Jewish community,” Serfaty said. “I haven’t heard news from the others.”
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