Racist, xenophobic and religion-based hate crimes surged 32 percent in France last year, government figures showed Wednesday, with a spike following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Police recorded 8,500 crimes and misdemeanours “committed because of the ethnicity, nationality, supposed race or religion” of the victim across 2023, the interior ministry’s statistics service (SSMSI) said. The statisticians highlighted “a marked acceleration towards the end of the year” — coinciding with the period following Hamas’s bloody October 7 attack on Israel and the state’s devastating campa…