ROME (AP) — Rome’s mayor has denounced anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas that have appeared across Rome and ordered them removed.

Some of the graffiti referred to the escalating violence in Gaza and included taunts such as “Jews, the end is near.”

Mayor Ignazio Marino offered his solidarity with Rome’s Jewish community and said the graffiti, which appeared near Jewish-owned businesses, was an “offense to all Romans.”

Jewish leaders, meanwhile, urged Rome police to find those responsible and punish them.

The head of Rome’s Jewish Community, Riccardo Pacifici, said “Rome cannot become like Paris where Jews are assaulted, synagogues are surrounded and where wearing the yarmulke is a concrete danger.”

Italian political leaders condemned the graffiti and the Vatican newspaper l’Osservatore Romano wrote Tuesday of the “abominable” new episode of anti-Semitism.

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