Jewish school in Toronto hit by gunfire for third time this year

AFP contacted the AA’s spokesperson for comment after failing to verify that information.

People on the ground in the Ann area, where phone and internet connectivity are inconsistent, were not reachable by AFP.

Prior to last August, when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) took control of the northeastern command in Lashio, Shan state, the military had never lost a regional military command in decades of intermittent warfare since gaining independence from Britain in 1948.

Since independence, numerous ethnic armed groups have fought the military for autonomy and control of valuable resources in Myanmar’s borderlands.

“No physical injuries were reported as the school was closed at the time,” Toronto police said of the incident, which comes amid persistent tensions linked to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The same school was targeted in similar attacks in May and October. A man and a teen were arrested and charged in October.

“Parents are concerned, frustrated, in fear. Students are afraid, staff are afraid, and no one should be afraid to come to school,” Rabbi Yaacov Vidal, the school’s principal, told reporters.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the incident a “hateful, anti-Semitic attack on Toronto’s Jewish community” In comments on X.

For Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, “enough is enough. Anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic attacks have no place in Toronto.”

On Wednesday, a synagogue was set ablaze in Montreal.

Trudeau called that a “vile anti-Semitic attack,” and Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the Canadian government to “act decisively, and show that such hatred will not be tolerated.”

A report issued in May by the Jewish organization B’nai Brith Canada said the number of anti-Semitic acts had more than doubled from 2022 to 2023.