A Holocaust memorial in Lyon, France, was defaced with the words "Free Gaza," city officials told French media on Saturday.
The words were scratched into the memorial plaque, marking the latest in a string of antisemitic acts and crimes in France.
"The vandalism of the Holocaust Memorial in Lyon is an intolerable act. I condemn it and express my full solidarity with memory associations, survivors and their descendants," the city's mayor, Gregory Doucet, said to AFP.
"The perpetrators will be sought and prosecuted. Lyon stands firm against hatred, antisemitism, and racism."
The monument, inaugurated in January of this year, marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
"The fact that this inscription was made on a Holocaust memorial clearly constitutes an antisemitic act," a city hall official told AFP.
The municipality reported that it had immediately begun the process of restoring the plaque.
Sa'ar: France should wake up!
“But when the US Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, expressed his concern about the rising antisemitism there, he was reprimanded for interfering in its internal affairs," Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X/Twitter.
“France should wake up!” he added.
Jean-Olivier Viout, president of the Holocaust Memorial association, has reportedly filed a complaint on the matter with Lyon’s city hall.
France has one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, after Israel and the United States. In the first six months of 2025, nearly 700 antisemitic acts were reported in the country, according to the French Interior Ministry.