The number of antisemitic acts registered in France and Belgium rose sharply since Hamas’ attack on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, according to figures released Thursday in both countries.

In France, data from the Interior Ministry and the Jewish Community Protection Service watchdog showed that 1,676 antisemitic acts were reported in 2023, compared to 436 the previous year.

According to the Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) — a Jewish security watchdog group — the number of antisemitic acts in the three months that followed the Oct. 7 attack equaled those of the previous three years combined.

The report noted a disturbing aspect regarding the surge of attacks – that there’s been “an explosion in the number of antisemitic acts in schools,” with almost 13% of antisemitic acts in recent months taking place against young students.

“The perpetrators of antisemitic acts are getting younger,” the report states. “Schools are no longer a sanctuary of the Republic.”

According to the report, the surge in antisemitic acts, which includes only incidents that were severe enough to be reported to police, is the worst on record. Almost 60% of the attacks involved physical violence or threatening verbal attacks or gestures.

In neighboring Belgium, an independent public body fighting discrimination said it received 91 reports related to the Israel-Hamas conflict between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7 last year, compared to 57 reports for the whole of 2022.

Most of the reports were remarks or acts considered as antisemitic, including cases of Holocaust denial, the independent Unia said. In 66 cases, a clear reference was made to the Jewish origin of the person or people targeted.

Most of the cases involved hate messages, more than half of them online, but there were also comments made in public areas. Unia is also collaborating with the public prosecutor’s office and Belgian police in nine cases of assault and damage, it said.

The report cited cases of beatings, graffiti and the desecration of dozens of graves in the Jewish section of a cemetery close to the city of Charleroi.

“We can therefore speak of a clear increase in reports of anti-Semitic acts since October 7, 2023,” Unia said.

Many European countries have registered a rise in reported antisemitic acts and comments since the outbreak of the war. Belgium has a Jewish population of about 29,000, according to the World Jewish Congress. Although most of the Jewish community in the capital, Brussels, is secular, the port city of Antwerp has a large ultra-Orthodox population and the largest Hasidic community in Europe.

(AP & YWN Israel Desk)