An anti-semitic beating in Paris....

Right in the heart of the Jewish area of Paris....

Three Jewish councilors from the Bnei Akiva youth movement were attacked not far from the organization's central branch in Paris on Saturday afternoon. The boys, aged between 17 and 18, had just finished the Sabbath minha prayer when they were attacked by a group of Muslims, the head of Bnei Akiva's French desk, Binyamin Tuati, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

According to a press statement released by World Bnei Akiva spokesman Tzvika Klein, the youths were initially approached by a group of three Muslims and African immigrants who began to hurl chestnuts in their direction. When one of the councilors complained, the assailants began yelling out anti-Semitic remarks. Between 10 to a dozen other attackers wearing knuckle dusters joined the original three and began beating up the Jewish group until police arrived at the scene.

The youths, Dan Nebet, Kevin Bitan and David Buaziz, had all been released from hospital by Sunday afternoon and sported several wounds from their attack including a broken nose, a broken jaw and stitches. According to Tuati, the victims' families filed a complaint with local police that had responded by opening an investigation into the incident, which has already been recognized as an anti-Semitic attack by local authorities. So far, three suspects have been identified by police.

The movement is now concerned over the fact that the incident occurred in an area central to the French capital's Bnei Akiva members at the 19th Quarter in Paris. The area, said Tuati, is close to a school and is visited by roughly 150 children every Shabbat. The incident marks the second anti-Semitic attack in the area of the Bnei Akiva branch in the last two months.