Jewish group names 4 victims of Paris kosher shop attack

Cnaan Liphshiz

PARIS (JTA) — The four fatalities at the attack Friday on a kosher shop in the French capital were all Jews, the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities said.

CRIF identified them as Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen and Francois-Michel Saada.

“These French citizens were struck down in a cold-blooded manner and mercilessly because they were Jews,” read the CRIF statement sent out on Saturday.

According to testimonies of people who survived the attack on Hyper Cacher, the people killed during the incident were shot in the early stages of the seven-hour standoff, which ended when police stormed the shop and killed the hostage taker — a 32-year-old man identified as Amedy Coulibaly.

French police believed he was an Islamist who was a member of the same cell as Cherif and Said Kouachi, who are believed to have gunned down 12 people Wednesday at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo weekly.

A vigil in memory of the victims is planned to take place Saturday night in front of the Hyper Cacher supermarket where the attack happened.