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| Canaanite jar being retrieved by a robot from a depth of 1.8 km. |
| Parisians came out on Wednesday to demand justice for a 12-year-old Jewish girl who was attacked and raped by three teens. |
Three French boys were arrested in the gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Paris in a sickening antisemitic attack, police said — prompting President Emmanuel Macron and other officials to demand schools crack down on racism and hate-fueled violence.
The victim, from Courbevoie, told police the boys raped her, made death threats and hurled antisemitic slurs at her during the assault on Saturday.
The girl was specifically targeted over her religion, the Nanterre public prosecution office said.
Chief Rabbi of France Haim Korsia said he was “horrified” over the attack and called on his nation to crack down on such despicable acts of antisemitism.
“Justice must firmly punish the perpetrators of this despicable act. No one can be excused from this unprecedented antisemitic surge,” Korsia wrote on X.
One of the suspects was allegedly the victim’s ex-boyfriend who planned revenge against her after she supposedly hid from him the fact that she was Jewish, according to the local Le Parisien newspaper.
Lawyer and Jewish leader Elie Korchia told French broadcaster BFM that the war in Gaza was referenced during the attack.
After the attack, the girl was warned not to go to the police and the main assailant demanded she pay them 200 euros, or $215, “otherwise something bad would happen to her and her family because he knows where she is,” Le Parisien reports.
The attackers — ages 12, 13 and 14 — were all arrested.
Two of the boys were charged with aggravated gang rape on a minor younger than 15, violence and public insult motivated by religion, death threats, attempted extortion and unlawfully recording or broadcasting sexual images.
The two teens accused of participating in the rape are being held in custody and the third boy was placed in a special education program for assisting in the vile act.
The horrific crime triggered protests outside Paris City Hall, with citizens frustrated over the rise of antisemitism in France since Oct. 7 and the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Macron was quick to condemn the attack and called on Education Minister Nicole Belloubet “to organize a discussion in all schools on the fight against antisemitism and racism, to prevent hate speech with serious consequences from infiltrating schools.”
Belloubet echoed the outrage and said the nation would be united in its “response against barbarism.”
“Horror has no limits,” Belloubet said in a statement about the crime. “Rape, anti-Semitism: everything is abominable in this crime committed in Courbevoie against a 12-year-old girl.”
Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides responded on Wednesday to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, after he had threatened Cyprus and warned it not to assist Israel.
Christodoulides said that the island was in “no way involved in the war conflicts.”
“The Republic of Cyprus is not part of the problem. The Republic of Cyprus is part of the solution,” the President of Cyprus added, according to CNN.
“And our role in this, as demonstrated, for example, through the humanitarian corridor, is recognized not only by the Arab world but by the international community as a whole,” he added.
In televised remarks earlier on Wednesday, Nasrallah warned, "We have information that the enemy is conducting maneuvers in Cyprus, in Cypriot territory, and airports. It (Israel) believes that if its airports are targeted, it will use Cypriot airports and facilities. Therefore, the Cypriot government must know that by opening Cypriot airports and bases for war on Lebanon, we will deal with Cyprus as if it were part of the war."
The White House canceled a high-level US-Israel meeting on Iran that was scheduled for Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video on Tuesday claiming the US was withholding military aid, two US officials told Axios’ Barak Ravid.
President Joe Biden's top advisers were enraged by the video — a message US envoy Amos Hochstein delivered personally to Netanyahu in a meeting hours after it was published, two US and Israeli sources said. Then the White House decided to go a step farther by canceling Thursday's meeting.
"This decision makes it clear that there are consequences for pulling such stunts," a US official said.
Some Israeli officials were already en route to Washington when the meeting was cancelled, according to Ravid’s report.
Two US officials told Axios the meeting was canceled to send a message about the video. A third claimed the meeting was postponed rather than canceled, due to a scheduling issue.
In Tuesday’s video, Netanyahu expressed astonishment at moves from the Biden Administration to hold up munitions shipments to Israel during the war against Hamas.
"When Secretary Blinken was recently here in Israel, we had a candid conversation, I said I deeply appreciated the support the US has given Israel from the beginning of the war," Netanyahu said.
"But I also said something else, I said it's inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunitions to Israel. Israel, America's closest ally, [is] fighting for its life, fighting against Iran and our other common enemies," he added.
"Secretary Blinken assured me that the administration is working day and night to remove these bottlenecks. I certainly hope that's the case. It should be the case,” continued Netanyahu.
Later, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre the known liar reacted with seeming bewilderment to Netanyahu's statement.
"We genuinely do not know what he is talking about. We just don't," she lied to reporters. "There was one particular shipment of munitions that was paused."
"We continue to have these constructive discussions with Israelis for the release of that particular shipment," she added. "There are no other pauses, none, no other poses or hold in place. Everything else is moving in due process."
A wanted poster released on Wednesday urges New Yorkers to help identify the man so he can be arrested on a coercion charge.
“The subject chanted ‘Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist,’” the poster states, “Repeat after me, this is your chance to get out!”
This incident occurred the same night a group of anti-Israel protesters swarmed a downtown Manhattan exhibit commemorating the victims of the Nova music festival, who were killed and kidnapped on October 7.
In response to this incident and a series of other antisemitic protests across the city, Jewish leaders told The Post that New York should reinstate a ban on protesters wearing masks. Governor Kathy Hochul is reportedly considering reinstating the law, which was repealed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
