Israeli leaders expressed sympathy and solidarity with France after a terrorist attack in the city of Nice killed 84 people celebrating Bastille Day, France’s national holiday, on Thursday night.
“Israel strongly condemns the terrible terror attack,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “Israelis stand united with the French people. Israel is willing to help the French government fight this evil until it is defeated.”
“The horrific terrorist attack on Bastille Day was a clear but futile attempt to undermine the very foundations of the French Republic,” he added. “Israel is your close partner in the fight against Islamist terrorism. We stand ready to provide any assistance you require in our common effort to put an end to the deliberate targeting of innocent civilians.”
President Reuven Rivlin sent a condolence letter to his French counterpart Francois Hollande. “It is with pain and sorrow that I must once again write and express my deepest condolences, and those of all the Israeli people, following the horrific terror attack in Nice,” Rivlin wrote, referring to previous terror attacks in France in January and November 2015.
Israel stands with France and the Israeli people stand with the French people, shoulder to shoulder in the face of this terrible evil, as should the whole free world. We must work united to reach the terrorists, their supporters and backers, wherever they may hide. …
La Fête Nationale, France’s national celebration, marks the beginning of the French Revolution, an event crucial to European and world history and the rise of the modern values which today we all hold dear; liberty, equality, and democracy. The vile threat of terrorism is an affront to these values, and its perpetrators murder and maim indiscriminately in pursuit of their barbaric ideology of hate.
Other political figures, including opposition leader Isaac Herzog and former president Shimon Peres, tweeted support.
Vile terror attacked our shared values in Nice. This is our generation's World War. My condolences to families of victims and French public.
— יצחק הרצוג (@HerzogMK) July 15, 2016
Israel sends France its deepest condolences, stand united with our French friends in this difficult time #PrayersForFrance
— Shimon Peres (@PresidentPeres) July 15, 2016
31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a French citizen of Tunisian origin, drove a truck for more than a mile, zigzagging to hit as many people as possible who were watching fireworks along the city’s Promenade des Anglais. He eventually emerged from his truck and starting shooting at more passersby before being killed by the police. President Hollande had announced earlier in the day that France’s state of emergency would expire within two weeks, but has now been extended another three months. Investigations into the attack are still ongoing.
[Photo: Sky News / YouTube]