Bullet holes found in French synagogue’s front wall, mailbox

Police are investigating the incidents as possible hate crimes.

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(JTA) – Bullet holes were found in the mailbox and building facade of a synagogue in western France.

Police were called twice over the past three weeks to the synagogue of Le Havre, the news website Paris-Normandie reported.

The first set of bullet holes was discovered in the façade on Nov. 28 and another, which included the mailbox, was discovered on Dec. 2, the newspaper reported Sunday.

Police are investigating the incidents as possible hate crimes.

In 2015, the SPCJ protection service of the French Jewish community recorded more than 800 incidents it defined as anti-Semitic. Some 12 people have died in three armed attacks on Jewish targets by jihadists in France and Belgium since 2012. Hundreds more were killed in terrorist attacks in those countries on civilian targets.

The French government has deployed approximately 12,000 police and military around synagogues and other Jewish community buildings, where they provide constant protection during activity hours, and at some locales around the clock.

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