FRENCH Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve attacked a rally against Israel’s Gaza offensive today, alleging that it had sparked “intolerable” acts of anti-semitism.

“When you head for the synagogue, when you burn a corner shop because it is Jewish-owned, you are committing an anti-semitic act,” Mr Cazeneuve told reporters outside the Sarcelles synagogue.

Sunday’s banned demonstration in the north Paris suburb of Sarcelles was the third to deteriorate in a week, as shops were looted and riot police lobbed tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd.

The rally had been banned after pressure from the local Jewish community.

It descended into chaos when dozens of youth split from the main demonstration and set fire to bins and threw smoke bombs.

Eighteen people were arrested after looters wrecked shops, including a kosher food store and a funeral home as protesters shouted: “Fuck Israel.”

“We have never seen such an outpouring of hatred and violence in Sarcelles,” said Mayor Francois Pupponi.

“This morning people are stunned and the Jewish community is afraid.”

Violence in Sarcelles mirrored that of a banned rally in Paris on Saturday, where a protest spiralled out of control, leading to clashes with riot police and dozens of arrests.

The bans have drawn controversy as the rallies took place anyway and turned violent, while authorised ones elsewhere in the country, as well as across Europe, were peaceful.

However, Mr Cazeneuve insisted that “it was not the ban that caused the violence, it was the violence that led to the ban.”