Statistics released by France and Belgium on Thursday show the number of antisemitic acts had risen sharply in both countries since Hamas’ attack on Israel and the initiation of the war in Gaza.

The French Ministry of the Interior and the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community of France (SPCJ) announced on Thursday that, in 2023, France has recorded 1,676 antisemitic acts committed in the country, as compared to 436 in 2022. The report observed that the number had exploded after October 7, 2023, which was the date of the Hamas attack in Israel, and that the overall number of antisemitic acts in the next three months in the country equaled that of the previous three years combined.

In neighboring Belgium, the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (Unia), said that between 2018 and 2022 there were 291 files opened for antisemitism, but the Israel-Hamas conflict caused a sharp increase in the number of applications received. In the two months between October 7 and December 7, 2023, Unia recorded 91 reports, while the average number of reports was four or five per month in 2022. Although hate messages took up 65 percent of the cases, there were still 10 percent of cases involving acts of violence.

According to the World Jewish Congress, France has the worlds’ third-largest Jewish community with nearly half a million, exceeded only by Israel and the United States. Belgium has approximately 29,000 self-identifying Jews, most of which reside in Brussels or Antwerp, Belgium’s two largest cities, making up 0.25 percent of the country’s total population.

Apart from France and Belgium, a number of European countries, including Denmark and the United Kingdom, have seen a rise in reported antisemitic acts following the Israel-Hamas war.

On January 18, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution is non-binding.