The words “Free Gaza” have been scratched into the marble of a Holocaust memorial in France. The monument is outside a train station in Place Carnot, Lyon, from where hundreds of Jews were transported to Nazi death camps during World War 2.

Grégory Doucet, the city’s mayor, condemned the vandalism as an “intolerable act” in a statement issued on Monday (September 1). He vowed that those responsible would be “pursued and prosecuted”.

Mr Doucet added that Lyon continues to stand firm against hatred, anti-semitism and racism. Unveiled in January, the memorial was installed to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel‘s Foreign Minister, said “France must wake up” in response to the defacing of the memorial.

He wrote on X: “Desecration of a Holocaust memorial in Lyon, France. But when the US Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, expressed his concern about the rising antisemitism there he was rebuked for interfering in ‘internal affairs’. France must wake up!”

News of the vandalised memorial comes amid a row between Israel and France over French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to officially recognise a Palestinian state this month.

The US Ambassador to France last week wrote a letter in which he argued that “gestures” towards the recognition of a Palestinian state “embolden extremists, fuel violence and endanger Jewish life in France”.

Mr Kushner was summoned by the French foreign ministry in response.

The president of France and other international leaders, including Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, have urged Israel to end its offensive in the Gaza Strip, where many Palestinians have been displaced, neighbourhoods lie in ruins and a famine has been declared in Gaza City.

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Macron said: “The occupation of Gaza, the forced displacement of Palestinians, their reduction to starvation … will never bring victory to Israel“.

He added: “On the contrary, they will reinforce the isolation of your country, fuel those who find pretext for antisemitism, and endanger Jewish communities around the world”.

Anti-semitic incidents in France have risen since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack in southern Israel which provoked the latest war in Gaza.

France’s interior ministry said in a statement last week that 646 anti-semitic acts had been recorded in the country in the first six months of this year.

This represents a decrease of 27% compared to 2024, according to Euronews, and a spike of more than 112% compared with the same period in 2023.