"I want to say to those who think that they can come here in the middle of the night and defile the memory of those buried here ... that we will not leave them and that we will mobilize and act," said French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner, reports CNN.

The Minister of the Interior, who has visited the cemetery in the town of Westhoffen, east of Strasbourg, calls the vandalism "disgusting anti-Semitic deeds" and has announced the establishment of an "official anti-hate agency".

Anti-Semitic crimes have increased by 74 percent

Also, French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned the vandalism, writing in a statement on Twitter: “Anti-Semitism is a crime and we will fight it, in the Westhoffen, and everywhere, so that our dead can rest in peace.

The province of Alsace has been hit hard by anti-Semitic attacks in recent years. In February, 96 graves were destroyed at a Jewish cemetery in the village of Quatzenheim.

In France, around 500,000 people live with Jewish insults, which is the largest population of Jews in Europe. At the same time, the country has seen a 74 percent increase in anti-Semitic crimes, according to French authorities, between 2017 and 2018.