A 29-year-old man, who rammed his car into two motorcycle police officers in the Paris suburb of Colombes claimed he acted “for the cause of Palestine.” The man, identified as Youssef T., reportedly referenced Gaza and the Islamic State during his arrest. A knife was found in his car.
Both policemen were wounded, one in the head, the other in the stomach and legs.
In the suspect’s car, investigators found a knife and a “letter explaining his action,” and he “said during his arrest that he had watched videos on Palestine before acting,” prosecutors said.
The national counterterrorism prosecutor’s office is looking into the possibility of getting involved in the case. “My thoughts are with our two injured police officers,” French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner tweeted after the attack, adding that the investigation into the attack would “shed light on the suspect’s motivations.”
According to Shimon Samuels, Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, ‘’statements broadcast on social media, such as last week’s French Ambassador at the UN Security Council warning to Israel – if it moves to annexe areas of the West Bank populated by Israelis – may have aroused youth in Paris to attack French traffic police, ‘in the name of Palestine’.”
Last week, France threatened to change the nature of its ties with Israel, should the new government annex parts of the West Bank, in Ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Rivière’s remarks to the Security Council.
The ambassador said that annexation “would constitute a blatant violation of international law, which strictly prohibits the acquisition by force of occupied territories.”