There are a number of Jews among the more than 1,000 French citizens who have joined the Islamic State, a French government official told Israel’s Channel 2 news.
Citing figures compiled by the French Interior Ministry, the official on Monday said intelligence shows there are people “of Jewish extraction,” some of whom converted to Islam, among those who joined the jihadist group.
The official emphasized that there are only a small handful of Jews among the IS recruits – not enough to consider it a trend.
The revelation comes just days after reports surfaced that a French Jewish teenager was among the approximately 100 young women who have left France to join jihad in Syria during the past year and a half.
Meyer Habib, a Jewish member of the French parliament, said the suspected jihadis were the topic of conversation among France’s Jewish community.
– Read more: More Jews Have Joined Islamic State, French Official Says – Haaretz