French Prime Minister Manuel Valls tweeted Thursday that Monday’s ''horrible'' attack on a Jewish couple in Creteil, a Paris suburb, showed "the fight against anti-Semitism is a daily fight."
Assailants carrying handguns and a short-barreled rifle forced their way into an apartment in Creteil, tied up a 21-year-old Jewish man and his 19-year-old partner and demanded money, according to police.
One suspect raped the woman while another guarded her partner and a third withdrew money from a cash machine. The assailants spent approximately one hour inside the house, police said.
Two suspects have ben arrested and charged of religion-motivated violence, armed robbery, rape, sequestration and extortion. French media reported that a third suspect was later charged, apparently as an accomplice.
The young victim, whom authorities have not identified, told the French media that the attackers "apparently thought that given that my family is Jewish, Jews have money." He said the assailants repeatedly asked where the family money stash was kept and talked about attacking Jews.
French President Francois Hollande reiterated the need to fight anti-Semitism.
"A family in a city in France was attacked because it is Jewish. When such dramas occur, such tragedies, it is not simply the family that is wounded, attacked. It is the greatness of France that finds itself wounded, damaged,’’ he said.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement on Wednesday that the "anti-Semitic nature (of the attack) seems proven," saying that the assailants "started with the idea that being Jewish means having money."
CRIF, the umbrella representative group of French Jewish organization, denonced the brutality of the attack and called on the authorities to fight anti-Semitism.
According to the SPCJ, the protection service of the Jewish community, the number of anti-Semitic acts in France almost doubled (91%) during the first seven months of 2014 in comparison with the same period of 2013.