A woman walks past a building tagged with Stars of David in Paris, France, Oct. 31, 2023. REUTERS/LUCIEN LIBERT

Prosecutors in France have opened an investigation after blue Star of David symbols were found spray-painted on several buildings in Paris on Tuesday - incidents described by the French capital's mayor as "despicable acts" of antisemitism.

"Antisemitic tags were discovered in Paris. Faced with these despicable acts, we contacted the public prosecutor to identify, prosecute and sentence the perpetrators. Antisemitism has no place in our Republic," Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a statement posted on social media Tuesday.

In recent days, a spate of antisemitic acts have occurred across Europe as tensions rise on the continent amid the war between Israel and Hamas.

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne said on Tuesday that "demonstrations of hatred against Jews have intensified in our country. Antisemitism is cowardice, hatred of others."

"Those guilty of these acts must be condemned," she added.

Where were the Stars of David found in Paris?
The symbols were stenciled in blue along the walls of multiple buildings in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, leaving prosecutors questioning whether they can determine the incidents are antisemitic.

In a statement on Tuesday, French prosecutors said that they did not know "whether these tags were intended to insult the Jewish people or to claim Jewish membership, particularly as they involved the blue star" rather than yellow, but felt it was necessary to investigate "in view of the geopolitical context and its impact on the population."

"It has not been established that this star has an antisemitic connotation, but this cannot be dismissed out of hand," the statement said.

During World War II, Nazi Germany and some European countries that it occupied forced Jewish people to wear yellow stars on their clothing as part of a program of persecution that culminated in the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered in an act of mass genocide.

Since Hamas militants' bloody incursion into Israel on Oct. 7, more than 800 incidents of antisemitism have been recorded in France alone, government spokesperson Olivier Veran said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, French news agency Agence France-Presse reported that Austrian police were also investigating an antisemitic incident after a fire broke out overnight and damaged a hall at the Jewish part of a cemetery in the country's capital of Vienna.

The cemetery walls were sprayed with antisemitic symbols, AFP reported, citing police officials.

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