A 13 year old boy was maced in a northeastern suburb of Paris last week, according to a report published online by the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA).

The incident occurred Tuesday evening (Jan. 20) in Le Pre-Saint-Gervais.

The boy was surrounded by a group of three young thugs who appeared to be of North African descent, according to an eyewitness report.

The boy was visibly Jewish, making him an easy mark because he wore a kipah and tzitzit, an eyewitness testified.

One of the attackers sprayed the boy in the eyes with mace or pepper spray, temporarily blinding him. Then the perpetrator fled with two cohorts.

The victim was rushed to a nearby clinic, suffering intense pain for about 30 minutes after the attack. He received medical care at the clinic for the injury.

Tel Aviv Dan company bus driver Herzl Biton has regained consciousness after being stabbed repeatedly by a Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist who attacked him while he was driving.

Despite his wounds, he managed to stop the Number 40 bus and open the door to let the passengers escape from the knife-wielding terrorist.

Biton, 55, was seriously wounded in Wednesday’s attack (Jan. 21).

He is hospitalized at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv. “He fought the terrorist and got hurt more. Please pray for a speedy and full recovery,” his son Yaniv requested.

Biton underwent surgery and was sedated for hours. Although he is no longer fighting for his life, the driver is still in serious condition.  As of Thursday morning eight people were still hospitalized from the attack.

Still fighting for her life and hospitalized at Sourasky is a 69-year-old woman also stabbed by the terrorist.

Two other victims in the same attack are listed in fair condition at Tel Aviv’s Sheba Medical Center. Both are expected to recover.

Hamza Matrouk, 23, of Tulkarm confessed that he launched the attack in hopes of “reaching paradise” in response to radical Islamist jihad programs he had seen on television. He told investigators the attack was also carried out in retaliation for last summer’s IDF counter terror Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, and recent disturbances on the Temple Mount.

Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents and IDF soldiers launched a joint operation this morning (Thursday, Jan. 22) to search Matrouk’s home and those of two family members near Tulkarm. Two arrests were made, according to a report broadcast on Army Radio.

A second lone wolf terror stabbing attempt was made by another Palestinian Arab this morning, less than 24 hours after yesterday’s attack.

Police officers in Ra’anana found themselves suddenly struggling with a Palestinian Arab man trying to stab them during an arrest.

The 22-year-old terrorist, a resident of the Palestinian Authority, was originally being detained because he did not have a permit to enter Israel.

While searching him police discovered the man had a knife, but found him suddenly trying to stab them with an additional blade.

No injuries were reported. The attacker was transferred to security personnel at a Kfar Saba precinct for further questioning.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters at a briefing Wednesday that his nation will do everything possible to free two Japanese captives held by ISIS terrorists.

Islamic State in Iraq and Syria released an online video Tuesday allegedly showing two Japanese nationals it said it was holding hostage. The terror organization said it would kill the captives unless Japan paid $200 million in ransom for the hostages.

Japan’s prime minister told reporters, “I have instructed [our government] that we will exhaust all possible measures to have the two freed using all diplomatic channels – all the diplomatic routes we have built so far,” he said.

But, he added, “Our country will never give in to terrorism.”

Japan and Israel have strengthened ties in recent months. Last week Japan’s prime minister visited the Jewish State with a large delegation; earlier, Israel’s prime minister visited Tokyo as well.

Other nations now appear to be slowly tightening up on ISIS as well. Pakistani security forces in the eastern city of Lahore arrested Yousaf al-Salafi, whom they believe to be the commander of the ISIS branch in that country.

“Al-Salafi is a Pakistani Syrian who reached Pakistan through Turkey five months ago,” a source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. “He crossed into Turkey from Syria and was caught there. Someone how managed to escape and reached Pakistan to establish ISIS.”

They also arrested two accomplices, all three involved in recruiting and then sending the new fighters to Syria for advanced terror training, according to intelligence sources.

The USS Iwo Jima and the USS Fort McHenry warships sailed into the Red Sea on Wednesday.

Both are positioned to take on foreign service employees and their families fleeing the U.S. embassy in Yemen, if deemed necessary. Iranian-backed Shi’ite Houthi rebels overtook the presidential palace after a long barrage of shelling in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, on Tuesday, according to CNN. Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf told the news network, “The President has no control [over the country.”

Yemeni President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi is believed to be in his private residence, and was not in the presidential palace at the time of the attack. However, the president’s residence is reportedly under attack as well, as is the prime minister’s residence as well, according to Sakkaf.

The attack on the presidential regime apparently comes in response to a decision to introduce a new constitution without the approval of the Houthi constituency. On Saturday, Houthi rebels also abducted presidential chief of staff Ahmed bin Mubarak in Sana’a.

The southern city of Aden is still reportedly under the control of the government regime, which closed the Aden port and sealed roads leading into and out of Sana’a, according to Yemeni state television. But the government has little other control, and it may just be a matter of time before even that much is wrested away by Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, the situation is becoming increasingly perilous for foreigners in the country – and for Americans in particular, given the ongoing “war on terror” being waged by the U.S. against Al Qaeda.

Yemen is home to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – the Al Qaeda branch that partnered with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the recent Paris terror attacks. AQAP claimed direct responsibility for the massacre attack on the offices of the French ‘Charlie Hebdo’ satiric weekly magazine.

The takeover of the Yemeni presidential palace came just a day after clashes between government forces and Houthi rebel fighters left nine people dead and 67 others wounded.

That clash followed an attack Monday night on a U.S. embassy vehicle in Sana’a. It is not clear who fired at the vehicle, which was clearly marked. U.S. diplomatic personnel were in the car at the time. No one was injured according to a report by Fox News Insider. So far the embassy is still open.

“[We] are deeply concerned about the turn of events in Yemen over the last few days,” a State Department official also told U.S.-based ABC News. “[We are] continuing to closely monitor developments…and adjust the embassy’s security posture response in accordance to the situation on the ground.”

The 22-year-old terrorist who attacked the No. 4 Dan bus filled with commuters early Wednesday says he wanted to “reach paradise.”

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich told journalists Wednesday that Hamza Muhammad Hassan Matrouk of Tulkarm was a “terrorist in Israel without a work visa.”

Matrouk was named as the stabber who boarded the bus on Begin Road in Tel Aviv near the Beit Maariv Bridge. He stabbed the driver and continued with passengers, wounding 17 people, including four who were critically injured, three seriously wounded and six with lighter wounds. The others were treated for severe trauma and shock.

The 22-year-old terrorist was shot in the leg by one of two soldiers from the Israel Prison Service Nachshon Unit who was in the area at the time. Matrouk later confessed under questioning that he decided to carry out the attack after watching radical Islamist material that spoke of martyrs “reaching paradise” through jihad.

He added that he attacked the driver and passengers in response to events at the Temple Mount, and the counter terror Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.

It was the bravery of bus driver Herzl Biton – himself stabbed twice in the chest – who struggled with the attacker, and two Prison Service guards on the bus who then chased him, that slowed the terrorist down.

Biton struggled with Matrouk as he wielded the knife, aiming first at the 55-year-old driver, a 23-year veteran in the bus company and a father of three. Still conscious after the attack, Biton made a call to a friend to tell him, “A terrorist attacked me; I feel like I’m dying. Please look after my kids for me.”

The two soldiers from the IPS Nachson Unit ran after Matrouk as he attempted to escape the bus as it stood still at a green light. They were quickly joined by other IPS Nachson unit soldiers. Four fighters jumped out of their car to join the chase, then “fired at his feet and he collapsed.”

An Arab terrorist stabbed the driver and several passengers on a crowded Dan bus on line 40 in central Tel Aviv shortly after 7:15 Wednesday morning. He was shot and  was wounded and is the custody of the police.

The terrorist attacked the driver several times and then plunged his knife at passengers before escaping, with his knife in hand.

Passengers ran after the terrorist, who apparently was shot by a police or security officer.

Magen David Adom said their medics evacuated 10 people, two of them seriously or critically wounded.

All of the victims have been taken from the scene, including five who are being treated for shock.

Police are investigating if the terrorist acted on his own. He is from Tulkarm, east of Netanya.

Hamas praised the attack as “natural reaction” to the “occupation” but did not take responsibility for the stabbings,

French officials overrode objections of local officials who were forced to allow a secret burial Friday night for one of the radical Islamic terrorists who murdered a dozen people at the Charles Hebdo magazine offices two weeks ago.

The mayor of the city of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, said last week he would “categorically refuse” to allow the family of Said Kouachi to bury their terrorist son in the city where he lived before police killed him and his brother.

“I don’t want a grave that serves to attract fanatics. I don’t want a place that promotes hate,” he a French radio station on Thursday.

City officials backed down in the face of orders from the national government. “Given the risk of disturbance of the peace and in order to quickly turn the page of this tragic episode, it was decided to do the burial quickly,” the city said.

The terrorist’s wife did not attend the burial because she did not want to be followed by journalists.

Two other terrorists killed by police in a gunfight following the Islamic terror spree in Paris have not yet been buried. Kouachi’s brother Cherif will be buried in his native Gennevilliers, outside Paris in an anonymous grave. City officials said they will “avoid all risk of disturbance to the peace and to preserve the town’s tranquility.”

It is not yet known what will be done with the body of Amedy Coulibaly, who killed five people, including four hostages, at a kosher market in Paris.

France still is reeling from the terror spree, trying to maintain a posture that will not offend Muslims or label all of them as radical Islamists.

A  Paris administrative court ruled that Paris police were in their rights to ban an “Islamists out of France” rally planned for Sunday.

One of the organizers, “Secular Riposte,” announced it will hold a press conference instead of a rally, but Resistance Republicaine, a co-sponsor of the banned demonstration, said it will hold anti-Islamist rallies in southern France.

Jews in France and Belgium have been thrown back 70 years to the Nazi era. French Jews prayed in a private home Friday night because they could not be guaranteed safety to worship in a synagogue.

Police in Belgium were deployed in areas that could be targeted by terrorists, especially the Jewish quarter in Antwerp.

Approximately 150 paratroopers guarded synagogues and the Jewish Museum in Brussels after Jewish schools closed their doors Friday because of warnings of possible attacks.