Vienna - Incidents of anti-Semitic violence have been on the rise in Europe since last December and could be related to the recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, the European Union's Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said Monday.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents fell since January 2007, but there was a recent uptick, the Vienna-based agency said in a report.

"While it is too early to draw conclusions," FRA Director Morten Kjaerum said, "there are indications that this rise could partly be affected by the situation in the Middle East, as well as by the global financial crisis."

Since the outbreak of hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in late December, a number of assaults against Jews and attacks on synagogues have been mainly reported in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany and Sweden, the report said.

"Political and community leaders across the EU have an obligation to make it clear that intolerance and aggression in any form are completely unacceptable," Kjaerum said.

The report noted that most EU countries have no official or unofficial data on anti-Semitic incidents. (dpa)