1,000 attend solidarity rally in Jerusalem

Around a thousand people took part in a solidarity rally at the Jerusalem City Hall on Sunday to show their support for the people of France and the French Jewish community in the wake of a series of terror attacks that killed 17 people in Paris.

New immigrants from France and city officials gathered in the municipal council chamber, Ynet reported. Some of those who took part held signs that read “Israel is Charlie,” a reference to the “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) banners that have been displayed in France following a terror attack last week at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in which 12 people were killed.

The Jerusalem rally was timed to coincide with the start of a huge demonstration of support for the victims of the attacks held in the Place de la Republique in Paris. Hundreds of thousands of people crowded into the square; more than 50 world leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, linked arms as they led the participants in a “unity march” across parts of the French capital.

A three-day killing spree began Wednesday with the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices that saw jihadist brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi kill 12 people including some of the country’s best-known cartoonists. A day later, Islamist Amedy Coulibaly shot dead a French policewoman.

A massive manhunt for the two brothers developed into a car chase Friday and then a tense standoff as they took one person hostage in a printing firm northeast of Paris. As police closed in on the brothers, Coulibaly stormed a Jewish supermarket on the eastern fringes of the capital, killing four.

At sunset, the brothers charged out of the building with guns blazing in a desperate last stand, before being cut down.

Within minutes, elite commando units moved in Paris against Coulibaly, who had threatened to execute his hostages unless the brothers were released.

He had just knelt for his evening prayer when the specialists burst in.

Several people — including a three-year-old boy — survived hidden inside a refrigerator for five hours, with police pinpointing their location using their mobile phones, prosecutors and relatives said.

A manhunt was still underway Sunday for the girlfriend or wife of Coulibaly, 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene who was apparently not in France at the time of the killings.

AFP contributed to this report.