France had been on high alert for terrorism since the Charlie Hebdo shooting and a series of related attacks in January 2015,[8] and had increased security in anticipation of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, scheduled to be held in Paris from 30 November to 11 December, as well as restoring border checks a week before the attacks.[8]
The Charlie Hebdo shooting occurred in the 11th arrondissement (district) of the city, where the Bataclan theatre is situated.[29] France experienced lesser attacks throughout 2015: the February stabbing of three soldiers in Nice guarding a Jewish community centre;[30] the June attempt to blow up a factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, resulting in the death of an employee;[31] and the August shooting and stabbing attack on a train.[32]
The Bataclan theatre had been threatened several times because of its public support for Israel.[33] Two Jewish brothers, Pascal and Joël Laloux,[34][35] owned the Bataclan theatre for more than four decades before selling it in September 2015.[36] In 2011 a member of Army of Islam told French security services that they had planned an attack on the Bataclan theatre because its owners were Jews.[33][37][38][39]
In the weeks leading up to the attacks, ISIL and their branches had claimed responsibility for several attacks, such as two suicide bombings in Beirut two days earlier,[40][41] and the crashing of Metrojet Flight 9268 on 31 October.[42][43]
Intelligence agencies of Turkey, Iraq, and Israel had warned of an imminent attack on French soil months before and even the day before the attacks but got no response from French authorities.[44][45][46][47][48]