French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Photo: Reuters/Quentin De Groeve

Speaking outside a Jewish school in a suburb of Paris on Wednesday, France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced that at least two individuals are in the process of being deported from France over antisemitic incidents following the Hamas terrorist invasion of Israel on Saturday.

Le Parisien reported that, according to the interior minister’s office, one incident involved a Syrian man speaking English who tried to enter a synagogue school in Paris, was stopped by the school’s guards, and began talking about bombs and shouting “Allahu Akbar” before he was arrested.

Another involved a man who was stopped by police driving in front of a synagogue in Cannes and was found to be in possession of a tear gas canister.

Darmanin said he has ordered the deportation of any non-French national for antisemitic acts.

“I have given firm instructions to the prefects, that any person who is not of French nationality, whatever their status, to proceed with the immediate withdrawal of their residence permit and the immediate expulsion of these people,” Darmanin said Wednesday.

In addition to the individuals held in administrative custody pending their deportation, France has arrested “about 20” people for antisemitic acts committed since Saturday’s attack in Israel. France has also increased security at some 500 Jewish sites around the country.

“It is important that all French people of Jewish faith know that they are protected,” Darmanin said.

An Interior Ministry spokesman on Tuesday said that France wanted to “avoid importing the conflict to France.”

Darmanin added that there have been more than 1,000 reports of antisemitic incidents reported since Monday, including crowds shouting threats at synagogues, vandalism, and drones entering school yards. 

Meanwhile, France has also placed President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet, who is Jewish, under police protection after she received death threats. Other Jewish politicians in France have also been given increased police protection since the Hamas attack.