(Jewish Group) Synagogue attack in Halle Germany (collection of articles)

Germany’s chief prosecutor says Halle shooting suspect planned a ‘massacre’

Germany’s chief federal prosecutor said the alleged gunman who targeted a synagogue in the town of Halle was planning to carry out a “massacre” there.

Peter Frank told reporters that the suspect, identified by the German media as Stephan Balliet, a 27-year-old German citizen from a nearby town, had nearly nine pounds of explosives in his car at the time of his capture, The Associated Press reported.

It is not known how he obtained the explosives or the material to build the homemade weapons he used.

Frank said Thursday that he believed the attacker livestreamed his attack, from a helmet camera, to encourage others to imitate him.

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Germany ‘must protect Jewish life,’ its president says at site of attack near synagogue

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said the state “must protect Jewish life” in the aftermath of a shooting attack near a synagogue on Yom Kippur.

On Thursday, Steinmeier visited the site of a right-wing extremist’s attack that left two dead — in front of a nearby Jewish cemetery and one at a Turkish kebab restaurant. The gunman was prevented from entering the synagogue by its secure metal doors.

Steinmeier met with Jewish leaders at the synagogue in Halle, in eastern Germany.

“It must be clear that the state takes responsibility for Jewish life, for the security of Jewish life in Germany,” he told them, according to reports.

Local officials, and Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Jeremy Issacharoff, also visited the site with the president.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the attack.

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Jewish leader in Germany: Police did not provide adequate protection to attacked synagogue

— A Jewish leader in Germany doubled down on his accusation that police did not adequately protect the Halle synagogue targeted by a gunman on Yom Kippur.

The gunman opened fire near the synagogue in eastern Germany during services Wednesday and at a kebab shop, killing two, in an attack that he livestreamed from a helmet camera. The assailant said that Jews are “the root of all problems.”

“If police had been stationed outside the synagogue, then this man could have been disarmed before he could attack the others,” Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, told Deutschlandfunk public radio on Thursday, Reuters reported.

The German media identified the gunman as Stephan Balliet, a 27-year-old German.

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