The Belgian government denounces an "abject anti-Semitic act" after the explosion outside a synagogue in Liège.

The explosion that occurred overnight Sunday to Monday "directly targeted the Jewish community of Belgium," according to Interior Minister Bernard Quintin. The Belgian government denounced "an abject anti-Semitic act" after an explosion that occurred overnight Sunday to Monday in front of a synagogue in Liège, which led the federal prosecutor's office to take over the investigation. Its criminal origin and its targeting of the Jewish community were beyond doubt in the eyes of the authorities on Monday morning. "The explosion in front of the Liège Synagogue is an abject antisemitic act that directly targeted the Jewish community of Belgium," Interior Minister Bernard Quintin condemned in a message on X (formerly Twitter). "A judicial investigation has been launched by the federal prosecutor's office. Security measures around similar sites will continue to be reinforced," he added. "An importation of conflicts taking place elsewhere." The mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer, also denounced "an antisemitic act." "All the people of Liège, regardless of their origins, respect one another, and we do not want to see conflicts happening elsewhere imported into the city," the elected official continued, speaking to the public radio station RTBF. This was an allusion to the war in the Middle East, triggered on February 28th by American and Israeli strikes on Iran, which led to numerous missile and drone attacks from Tehran on the Gulf countries. The explosion occurred in front of the synagogue located on Rue Léon Frédéricq, and windows in several buildings were blown out. There were no injuries, and "only material damage was reported," according to the Liège police, who quickly established a security perimeter. "The investigation has..." "The case has been federalized," a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office, which in Belgium handles organized crime and terrorism cases, told AFP. Investigators from the federal judicial police specializing in counterterrorism were dispatched to the scene, according to RTBF. The synagogue, a listed building inaugurated in 1899, is also a museum displaying various religious objects and the history of the Jewish community in Liège, according to its website. In Belgium, the Jewish community numbers around 50,000 people, mainly in Antwerp and Brussels, and its places of worship have been subject to heightened security measures on occasion in recent years. This was notably the case after the unprecedented attack perpetrated in Israel on October 7, 2023, by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which led to the destruction of Gaza by the Israeli army. An increase in reports of antisemitic acts was then observed in Belgium.