A knife-wielding assailant attacked and wounded three French soldiers who were protecting a Jewish community center in the southern French city of Nice,  the French-Jewish website JSSNews reported.

The soldiers were guarding a building in the city’s Massena square which houses the Jewish community center and a Jewish radio station.

Authorities managed to apprehend the assailant, Moussa Coulibaly, 30, but not before he slashed one soldier in the face, a second in the leg and the third on the chin.

Coulibaly traveled to Turkey last week but was turned back at customs, officials said, which suggests his intention may have been to join the Islamic State terrorist group.

Coulibaly is not thought to be related to Amedy Coulibaly, who perpetrated the deadly attack at the Hyper Cacher Jewish supermarket in Paris on January 9, in which four Jews were killed.

The latest report comes in the wake of  a series of increasingly serious attacks on French military personnel protecting Jewish schools and institutions.

Thousands of soldiers tasked with securing Jewish institutions in France endure frequent abuse from passersby, the French Le-Progres site reported Monday.

Last Friday, three unknown assailants harassed two soldiers who were stationed outside the Nahalat Moshe Jewish school in Paris.

The trio, who reportedly pointed weapons at the guards, shouted antisemitic slogans and swore at them. Before fleeing, the three performed a “quenelle” gesture, an inverted Nazi salute popularized by the notorious antisemitic provocateur and comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala.