A Jewish school in Montreal was hit by gunfire on Sunday, making it a target for the second time in less than a week amid heightened tensions over the conflict between Israel and Gaza, police said.
Police received a call reporting about shots being fired around 5am in the morning from the Yeshiva Gedola school neighbourhood.
Though no one was injured, the facade of Yeshiva Gedola of Montreal was struck. Bullet impact marks and bullet shells were found after residents heard gunfire early on Sunday, CBC News in Canada reported.
Five days ago, a single round was fired at the school, reported several local media outlets. The same night, another school – Montreal’s Talmud Torah Elementary – was also hit by gunfire, with both schools reported finding a bullet hole in their front doors Thursday morning, local media reported.
It was unclear if the incidents at Jewish schools were related.
“We’re concerned for the safety of our children,” said Mikael Ohana, whose children attend Montreal’s Yeshiva Gedola school, told Canadian outlet City News Montreal. “These are children that are being affected here. They’re not graffiti-painting. These are real bullets in a real school. And children are there, from babies to teenagers.”
But on Wednesday, a violent altercation at Concordia University between people aligned with opposing sides of the conflict in Israel and Gaza resulted in injuries and an arrest, according to CBC News.
Mayer Feig, a member of the Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec, says shooting at schools is meant to intimidate the Jewish population in the city, the news agency reported earlier.
Earlier on Thursday, prime minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement condemning the violence.
“I know emotions are high, and people are scared. But attacking each other is not who we are as Canadians,” he said. “If anywhere in the world is going to start building the kinds of understandings that we’re going to need to see peaceful resolution in the Middle East … it starts in a place like Canada.”
In Toronto, police have reported hate crimes against Jews and Muslims had more than doubled the tally for all of 2022 in the three weeks after the initial Hamas attack on 7 October, a concern that was also echoed by Mr Trudeau last Wednesday.
He said the country has a long tradition of peaceful co-existence and it was the "responsibility of every single Canadian to see how we are recognizing each other’s pain and fear and move forward."
Israel says the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas killed an estimated 1,200 people and more than 240 were taken hostage. The ensuing Israeli bombardment of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has killed more than 10,000 people, Palestinian health authorities say.
