Investigation launched after shots fired at Toronto's Jewish school

The Canadian police are investigating an attack that occurred on Saturday morning. An unknown assailant fired shots at a Jewish girls' elementary school in Toronto. A specialized unit focused on investigating hate crimes is involved in the proceedings. Thankfully, no one was injured in the attack.

The targeted school is Bais Chaya Mushka. Surveillance cameras recorded the moment of the attack. Police do not rule out that it could have been a terrorist act.

"We will not ignore the obvious, what happened, and what the targets of the shots were," Inspector Paul Krawczyk from the police group dealing with firearm and gang-related crimes stated on Saturday. However, he emphasized that, for now, the police do not present any hypotheses.

Police reported that on Saturday, just before 5 AM Eastern Time, two people were seen in a car from which the shots were most likely fired. Evidence confirming the shots was also found.

Michael Levitt, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, spoke out. In a statement on Saturday, he wrote that the attack on the school must "serve as a wake-up call" for politicians. He also called on local authorities to take "decisive action".

"This is a brazen and cowardly attempt to intimidate the Jewish community. I want to make it clear that we will not hide" - Levitt wrote on social media.

According to police data, in Toronto in 2024, 56 percent of hate crime victims were Jews. In 2023, there were 5,791 cases of anti-Semitism reported in Canada, and in 2022, there were 2,769 such incidents. These include attempts to set fire to a synagogue and a Jewish center in Montreal, throwing eggs at a Holocaust memorial in Calgary, and an increasing number of anti-Semitic graffiti.

In many countries, the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Palestine last fall.