French police arrest illegal immigrant for planning attack on Jewish community, museum

French authorities have charged a 27-year-old Tunisian man suspected of plotting a jihadist-inspired attack targeting a Paris museum and members of the Jewish community, French media reported yesterday.

The suspect, an illegal immigrant to the country, was planning a violent attack inspired by the Islamic State group, and was considering traveling to join the terror organization in Syria or Mozambique, investigators said.

The investigation began after police stopped the man in central Paris on April 28 while he was allegedly driving with a fake license. A search of his phone uncovered Islamic State propaganda videos, hundreds of images of weapons, internet searches related to bomb-making and explosives, and a video of the suspect pledging allegiance to jihadist ideology, reports said.

The suspect had mentioned the Louvre as a possible target, as well as the Jewish community of Paris’s 16th arrondissement, according to French media.

Antisemitism in the city of more than 300,000 Jews — the sixth-largest Jewish community in the world and the largest in Europe — has reached historic highs since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the ongoing war in Gaza.