Israel mourns as victims of Toulouse shooting attack buried

As the plane headed for Israel, French
police mounted a predawn raid on a property in Toulouse
where a
24-year-old French man of Algerian origin named as Mohammed Merah, claiming
to be linked to al-Qaeda, was holed up inside a building.

The suspect told officers he wanted to avenge Palestinian children killed in
the conflict with Israel and to attack the French army, France’s Interior
Minister Claude Gueant said.

Monday’s attack saw the gunman open fire on a group of parents and children
outside the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, killing Sandler and his two
sons in the street.

He then ran into the school grounds and shot dead the seven-year-old daughter
of the school director. Another student, a 17-year-old boy, was critically
injured in the attack.

The victims were shot at point blank range before the gunman fled the scene on
a scooter.

The bloody assault sparked horrified denunciations from across France and
around the world, particularly in Israel, and prompted police to impose an
unprecedented terror alert in the southwest as they sought the killer.

French investigators believe the gunman also killed three soldiers in two
other attacks last week.

The soldiers were French citizens of North African origin, while another who
was critically wounded in the attack was black and from the French West
Indies.

Israel’s deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon hailed the ongoing police
operation unfolding in Toulouse and thanked Juppe for Paris’ “urgent
action to find the assailants and bring them to justice.”

“Today, all Israel is in pain and mourning over the deaths of innocent
children and a dedicated father,” he said after greeting the minister
and the families of the dead as they landed in Israel.

The school shootings sparked a wave of revulsion across the world,
particularly in Israel, where many commentators expressed concern over the
rise of a wave of anti-Semitism in Europe.

Source: AFP

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