Palestinian under psychiatric evaluation after hitting rabbi in France

A Palestinian man arrested earlier today for throwing a chair at a rabbi in a Paris suburban cafe has been sent to hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, French authorities say.

The reason for the attack was unknown, but France’s main Jewish association condemned it as an antisemitic assault, and French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou blamed a “radicalization of public debate” against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Gaza.

The rabbi, Elie Lemmel, suffered a gash to his head from the chair that hit him as he was speaking with a companion in the cafe in the wealthy western Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.

The local prosecutors’ office says that it opened a criminal investigation for assault, possibly aggravated by religious motives.

It says the Palestinian, an irregular migrant living with temporary papers in Germany, was thought to be 28 years old and born in the Gaza city of Rafah.

It adds that “he is undergoing a psychiatric examination requiring his forced hospitalization.”