On 26 July 2016, two Islamist terrorists attacked participants in a Mass at a Catholic church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy, northern France.

Wielding knives and wearing fake explosive belts, the men took six people captive and later killed one of them, 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel, by slitting his throat, and also critically wounded an 86-year-old man.

[8] Armed police then tried to enter the church and end the siege, but the attackers had lined the hostages up in front of the door, as human shields.

One wielding a handgun, they charged at police shouting "Allahu akbar"[17] and were shot dead by officers from Rouen's Research and Intervention Brigade.

[8] Kermiche was released after writing to the judge "I am a Muslim based on the values of mercy, kindness (...) I am not an extremist," and insisting that he recited his prayers twice a day and "wanted to see his friends and marry".

[31][32] Following the attack, the Amaq News Agency released a video showing Petitjean and Kermiche swearing their allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

][4][26] Police were said to be trying to identify members of a closed channel on the messaging app Telegram, on which Kermiche had posted, as part of an effort to establish how the perpretators had met.

[1] According to French daily Le Parisien, citing sources close to the investigation, Kermiche and Petitjean met on Telegram 4 days only before the attack.

[38] The same journal cites other deaths of Catholic priests in the West at the hands of common thieves or anti-religious people, as well as attacks by Islamists in Africa and Asia.

[42][43] Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said that Pope Francis was being kept up to date with developments and that he felt pain and horror at the "absurd violence".

[44] The Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, who was attending the World Youth Day in Kraków, Poland, said in response to the attack: "I cry out to God with all men of goodwill.

[4] Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, archbishop of Kraków asked the participants of the WYD to pray for all the victims of the recent terrorist attacks, especially for Jacques Hamel ″who was murdered today while celebrating the Eucharist in France.″[45] Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, who was also attending the World Youth Day, was asked whether Hamel could be declared a martyr and confirmed that "it was a question of hatred of faith".

Speaking of the response by Catholics to Muslims, Cardinal O'Malley added "To demonise Islam that's always the great danger … we have to be very clear we are not painting everyone with the same brush.

[4] Mohammad Karabila, President of Normandy's Regional Council of the Muslim Faith and imam of a local mosque said of Kermiche, "We're not going to taint Islam with this person" and "We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial".

[49][50] On 31 July, several copies of the Quran at the multi-faith room of Mater Dei Hospital in Malta were desecrated when slices of pork were laid inside the books.