FIRST ON FOX: A French business owner who had five of her family's stores wrecked by looters last week said this coming Saturday's protest could be a watershed moment for France.

Her message to President Emmanuel Macron: "Next Saturday is your last chance to save France," Michele Teboul, the business owner, said in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

Addressing both Interior Minister Laurent Nunez and Macron, she said, "If they don't do what’s necessary to do next Saturday, I think it is lost for France."

Teboul lost more than merchandise when looters ransacked 15 of the stores owned by her family, leaving five completely destroyed. She is also losing faith in whether the government of France can still protect them.

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Teboul accused authorities of failing to provide enough police to protect businesses, leaving families like hers facing destroyed stores and a costly recovery. She demanded that they protect the population before another Saturday. 

Her retail operations include stores in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille and Montpellier. Her sons work within the same company and operate their own brand, she said.

For her family, protections put in place before the violence proved insufficient. Attackers used axes to break through boarding, she said, leaving her sons facing a difficult recovery.

"We can say that five of the most important stores have been looted," she said, describing those locations as "completely destroyed."

Now, her family needs to pay for additional protection while trying to meet insurance security requirements.

Teboul said it would take at least two months to repair and secure the stores to the required standards. She described those requirements as a condition for obtaining insurance coverage, adding another obstacle to reopening and recovering the business.

"I think the winter season is dead," she said.

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Companies with established operations and financial reserves may be able to absorb the disruption, she said. Younger businesses face a more difficult path.

"The government said they would help us," Teboul said. "We are going to see."

Her sons have hired security guards with dogs. She also said she had heard of other shopkeepers obtaining weapons or tear gas, emphasizing that her sons had not purchased weapons.

"Some have bought weapons," she said. "You know, we are not used to weapons in France."

The concern extends beyond damaged merchandise and storefronts. Teboul, who is Jewish, said that many Jews are considering leaving France and warned that further disorder could deepen that uncertainty if things don't get better.

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"It is going to be very hard to imagine a future in France for us, especially for Jews," she said of her hope that the coming Saturday would be different.

Teboul said Jewish schools, synagogues and community businesses have dedicated security arrangements. Teboul is a former director of CRIF, the umbrella organization representing French Jewish institutions.

She stressed, however, that the weekend's violence was a national problem affecting people beyond the Jewish community.

"The specific problem of last Saturday is not a problem of Jews," she said. "The whole of France is concerned by this problem."

Teboul said looters sought streetwear and expensive merchandise. She accused police of failing to protect businesses during the unrest on Saturday, saying officers were overwhelmed as large crowds descended on city centers, particularly in Marseille and Lyon.

She cited an estimate she had heard being talked of as being around 30,000 young people arriving in central Marseille, a figure Fox News Digital could not independently verify.

Leading French broadcaster BFM reported on its X account that "Between 1,800 and 3,000 people" engaged in "the ransacking of the city center of Marseille, according to the prosecutor's estimates."

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"They were not enough," she said of the police.

The French government has acknowledged failures in its response to the unrest.

She said that authorities had mistaken the threat for an ordinary demonstration. "Of course they could prevent it," she added.

Teboul distinguished between students protesting over grievances and those who used the demonstrations as cover to steal.

"There were two events on Saturday," she said. "The looters, they took the opportunity that there were many people downtown, and then they came."

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For Teboul, the next test is whether authorities can protect what remains of their livelihood and everyone else in the country and restore their sense of security in France.

"We have to feel secure," she said. "We do not feel secure for the moment."

Teboul warned that another failure to protect the population could also have consequences for the government of Emmanuel Macron.

"The government may fall down," she said.

Fox News Digital's Sydney Finver contributed to this report. 

The International Criminal Court has so far turned a blind eye to the family of Shiri Bibas and her young sons, who were brutally murdered by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists after being forcefully taken from their homes during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

The Bibas boys — Ariel, four, Kfir, nine months, and their mother, Shiri — became the faces of the Israeli hostages held by terrorists in Gaza. All three were brutally murdered and now the mother's uncle, Maurice Shnaider, wants justice.

Before the court's Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, was removed for misconduct, Khan oversaw the issuance of controversial arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas terror commander Mohammad Deif, alleging they had committed a variety of war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

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Khan’s ICC only sought to grant "selective justice" according to legal expert Elliot Malin, who told Fox News Digital that he filed two cases with the Office of the Prosecutor in 2025 requesting warrants against the leaders he accuses of truly practicing war crimes, including genocide, in Israel and Gaza. 

Malin, president of Stratos Council, filed his first case with the ICC in Sept. 2025. It requested that the court investigate and issue warrants for two Iranian officials for "crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide committed in Israel and Gaza on and after Oct. 7, 2023." Malin said that "It is very clear that the Islamic Republic is the principal to these proxies who are operating as agents of the regime… and we should hold the Islamic Republic directly accountable."

The request for investigation and warrants was filed on behalf of Shnaider, whose filings say he has lost five generations of his family "to acts committed with the intent to destroy Jews," including the Holocaust.

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On Oct. 7, Shnaider told Fox News Digital that he turned on the news to see his niece, Shiri Bibas, "being taken away" with her young children into captivity. Bibas and her children were later murdered as hostages. Shnaider says that he prays that Bibas "didn’t witness how they did what they did to a four-year-old and a nine-month-old."

Shnaider’s sister and brother-in-law were also murdered at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. He explained that they "were burned inside the house in a brutal way that you cannot imagine, you cannot explain, you cannot answer." By the time of his sister and brother-in-law’s burial, he explained that "there was hardly anything left" to put in the caskets.

Shnaider says that the grief from the horrific losses of his family on Oct. 7 "doesn’t compute in my body," leaving him "choking" with tears. Though Shnaider acknowledges that he will never understand the rationale behind hate, he said that "the most I can do is fight them in the way I can." He believes it is now up to the ICC "to put a stop to it." If the ICC fails to do so, Shnaider says the court "should be condemned" for its bias.

While the case against Iranian leaders was filed on behalf of just the Shnaider family, Malin advocates filing a case on behalf of each family who lost relatives during the attacks of Oct. 7.

In Dec. 2025, Malin filed a second case, requesting investigation and arrest warrants for over a dozen Hamas members for a myriad of "war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed against Palestinians in Gaza."

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Malin says it is also important to hold Hamas leaders "directly accountable for the crime of genocide." He explained that Hamas attackers’ own words prove that there was no military goal during the Oct. 7 attacks, which largely killed civilians. 

Malin said Hamas attackers told Oct. 7 victims that they would continue attacks into Israel "until there are no Jews left in Palestine," and during phone calls to family, an attacker celebrated specifically having killed Jews.

"They’re not talking about soldiers. They’re not talking about people who, in the course of combat or conflict, would be allowed to be targeted. They’re talking about civilians," Malin said.

Malin added that the individuals now trying to justify Hamas’ actions on Oct. 7 "are now justifying the actual crime of genocide."

The case against Hamas leaders also notes their particular role in the deaths of innocent Gazans during the conflict that followed Oct. 7. "The goal there is to raise light of Hamas’ criminal conduct against Palestinians in Gaza," Malin said. He pointed out Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields and their torture of civilians, which he says "we have years of evidence for."

Malin said that the ICC has not responded to either of the cases he has filed. "If we don’t shed light on that at the ICC and the ICC refuses to do anything about it, then the only question for me… is what is the purpose that you serve?"

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Malin argues that though the Iranian officials, one of whom was killed during the ongoing conflict with the U.S., were from a state that is not party to the statute, because the ICC has jurisdiction over Gaza, it is responsible for overseeing crimes committed there.

In response to questions about their response to Malin’s filings, the Office of the Prosecutor for the ICC told Fox News Digital, "On the Situation in the State of Palestine the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) is actively investigating all crimes committed within the Court’s jurisdiction since 13 June 2014. The investigation is ongoing, and the Office continues to collect evidence in that context."

The statement added, "The OTP carries out its mandate independently and impartially, in accordance with its founding treaty, the Rome Statute," it continued. "The Office does not disclose details of the investigation to ensure the integrity of its processes and proceedings and to maintain the safety and security of all concerned, including victims, witnesses, the Office's staff and all those who cooperate with the Office and support its activities."

Malin said that Khan sought warrants against senior Israeli and Hamas leaders for the crime against humanity of extermination, which he described as "genocide without the intent [to commit genocide.]"

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That warrant was denied for Israeli leaders, but ultimately approved for Deif, though he had been previously killed in an Israeli air strike.

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed sweeping financial sanctions against the court. In a recorded video, Rubio charged, "Our message is clear: The United States and the American people are not subject to the jurisdiction of this fake ICC."

For some French Jews, Saturday's unrest brought an unsettling warning: conceal outward signs of Jewish identity and avoid gathering outside synagogues. 

One community member told Fox News Digital that some congregations had even canceled afternoon prayers on the Sabbath as demonstrations across France descended into violence.

Ahead of the protests on Saturday, he said, as a precaution, "Lots of synagogues sent out emails to their people saying, 'We're canceling Mincha on Shabbat afternoon. Please don't go out. It's going to be dangerous,'" Samuel Arrouas, a French Jewish community member who divides his time between Paris and Israel, told Fox News Digital.

Mincha is the Jewish afternoon prayer service. Arrouas, who returned to Israel before Saturday's protests, described his shock over the messages. "I'm 40 years old. First time I heard this," he said.

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Arrouas said warnings also advised Jews against visibly wearing kippahs, traditional skullcaps, or tzitzit, ritual fringes worn by observant Jewish men. Worshipers were discouraged from lingering outside synagogues after services. "You go to prayers, and you immediately leave," he said.

Before leaving France, Arrouas said he encountered masked demonstrators carrying Palestinian flags near Paris Dauphine University.

"It's very scary," he said. "When you're Jewish and you pass in front of such a scene, the only thing you want to do is just get away."

The concerns emerged as approximately 550,000 people demonstrated across France on Oct. 17 against rising fuel prices, the cost of living and deteriorating public services, including schools. The demonstrations were masked rioters clashed with police, looted businesses and set fire to vehicles and buildings in Paris, Marseille and other cities. France's Interior Ministry reported approximately 2,400 arrests.

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President Emmanuel Macron called for "calm and order" in a national address, warning against escalation. "We all feel anger and shame," he said, distinguishing protesters' "legitimate demands" from "those who destroyed, smashed and looted." He said "nothing justifies" the violence and pledged accountability. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered his resignation, which Macron refused.

Shannon Seban, the France-based executive director of European affairs at the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said the presence of Palestinian flags at demonstrations over domestic issues added to Jewish community concerns.

"We have seen Palestinian flags at demonstrations that were supposed to be about education and social demands. What does Gaza have to do with any of this?" Seban told Fox News Digital.

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"This has nothing to do with legitimate student demands anymore. We are talking about organized violence, about people who are not coming to demonstrate but to destroy, to attack our police officers and to challenge the authority of the Republic," she said.

Seban linked the violence to rhetoric urging people to "globalize the intifada" and to antisemitic conspiracy theories circulating online.

"At the Combat Antisemitism Movement, we documented 1,384 antisemitic posts in just two days, including conspiracy theories accusing Jews and Israel of being behind the unrest," Seban said.

"The right to protest is fundamental in a democracy. But the right to protest is not the right to destroy," she added. "France and Europe must wake up. Before it is too late."

In Marseille, Bruno Benjamin, president of the Marseille-Provence branch of CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, described the damage to local businesses and the anxiety facing the community.

"Several hundred shops were ransacked, vandalized and looted. The scale of the devastation is simply unbearable," Benjamin told Fox News Digital.

He said shopkeepers had seen years of work destroyed within hours, leaving some facing layoffs or temporary unemployment for employees.

"This is not just an attack on businesses. It is an attack on people's livelihood, their dignity, and the very fabric of our society," he said.

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France's Jewish community security organization, SPCJ, cautioned against assuming that Jewish-owned property was targeted because of religion. In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, SPCJ said a break-in and vandalism at a synagogue in Paris's 19th arrondissement initially suggested burglary, although the motive remained undetermined. Jewish-owned businesses were among those damaged in Marseille, it said, without evidence they had been singled out for being Jewish.

The U.S. State Department's existing Level 2 travel advisory urges Americans to exercise increased caution in France because of terrorism and unrest. Fox News Digital reached out to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment on the unrest and the safety of the Jewish community.

Benjamin said rising insecurity and antisemitism had left some French Jews considering whether to leave the country, while others remained determined to stay.

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"We must relentlessly combat antisemitism, defend their right to live in safety and dignity and ensure that no Jew in France should ever have to choose between their personal security and their love for their country," he said. "Because being Jewish in France should never mean having to live in fear."

For Seban of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, it's evident where the blame lies: "Let me be very clear: La France Insoumise and the far left bear a political responsibility for fueling this climate of violence and confrontation." 

The Trump administration reached a settlement with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that will close 18 active federal investigations and a separate Justice Department compliance review involving alleged antisemitism and race discrimination at the university.

The voluntary settlement agreement does not require a monetary payment, and the university does not admit to any wrongdoing or liability. The deal, which will remain effective until the end of 2028, allows UNC to maintain its eligibility for federal funding.

Under the agreement, UNC will appoint an internal "Merit & Civil Rights Administrator" and establish a "Title VI Coordinator" position in its compliance office to address complaints about antisemitism and race-based discrimination.

The university said Elizabeth Hall, associate vice chancellor for university compliance, was appointed to serve in both roles in addition to her existing duties. She will be the point of contact for the Justice Department and oversee UNC's reporting obligations.

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"This announcement reinforces our commitment to the fair and equal treatment of everyone at Carolina," UNC Chancellor Lee H. Roberts said in a statement. "For at least a decade, through different presidential administrations, U.S. universities have faced heightened public scrutiny across a range of issues. We’re proud to resolve those issues at Carolina in a way that protects our mission and affirms the civil rights of everyone in our community."

The agreement also requires UNC to provide mandatory antisemitism training to students, faculty and staff.

UNC will also prohibit face masks used to conceal an individual's identity, subject to certain exceptions, as part of the deal, which said student groups "shall be subject to discipline for antisemitic discriminatory conduct."

President Donald Trump and administration officials have accused pro-Palestinian protesters of antisemitism. But protesters, including some Jewish groups, contend that opposing Israel's military offensive in Gaza is not antisemitic and that support for Palestinian rights does not indicate support for extremism.

The settlement agreement also said UNC will adopt what the Justice Department called a "color-blind admissions system," barring the university from using race or altering its admissions process to change the racial composition of its student body. However, it does not prevent UNC from considering how applicants overcame adversity at a personal level, and the university may consider aspects of family background, such as poverty, if those considerations are applied consistently.

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UNC must also maintain race-blind policies governing student benefits, scholarships, financial aid and programming, according to the agreement.

The administration has argued that policies favoring certain racial groups over others violate federal anti-discrimination law.

The deal said UNC will send any antisemitism and race discrimination complaints it has received to the DOJ and the Department of Education on a quarterly basis.

As part of the agreement, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights will close 18 active investigations into UNC, while the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will close a separate 18-month compliance review opened in April 2025.

"Title VI requires that all students — regardless of their ancestry or race — receive equal treatment under the law at federally funded colleges and universities," Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement.

"Higher ed policies and practices that tolerate antisemitism or favor certain racial groups over others frustrate our color-blind justice system. The Civil Rights Division commends UNC for its cooperation in meeting its obligations under federal law without the need for litigation; we hope other institutions will take note and do the same," she added.

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In 2023, the Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at colleges as it struck down ​race-based admissions programs at UNC and Harvard.

The administration has targeted universities across the country with probes and threats to pull federal funding in response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus, diversity initiatives and transgender policies.

The federal government has also settled with some other schools, including Columbia University, which last year agreed to pay more than $200 million to resolve federal probes, and Brown University, which agreed to provide $50 million over 10 years to Rhode Island workforce-development organizations as part of its settlement.

Harvard, which has been a primary target of the administration's threats, has not yet made a deal.

Reuters contributed to this report.