A synagogue in Li\u00e8ge, Belgium, was damaged by an explosion in the early hours of Monday morning in what the country\u2019s interior minister called \u201can antisemitic act.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blast caused no injuries but blew out the windows of buildings across the street from the synagogue, the police said in a statement. Footage aired on local TV channels also showed damage to the door of the synagogue.<\/p>\n
The mayor of Li\u00e8ge, Willy Demeyer, described the explosion as \u201can extremely violent act of antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere can be no question of importing external conflicts into our city,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s interior minister, Bernard Quintin, called the incident \u201can abject antisemitic act that directly targeted Belgium\u2019s Jewish community\u201d in a post on social media.<\/p>\n
The blast hit at around 4 a.m. on the street in front of the synagogue, according to the police. The Belgian Federal Prosecutor\u2019s Office said in a statement that it had started an investigation because there were \u201cpossible indications of a terrorist offense\u201d but noted that the exact circumstances of the incident were as yet unclear.<\/p>\n
The street, to the southeast of the city\u2019s center, will be closed off for the duration of the investigation, the police said.<\/p>\n
The explosion comes at a time when issues around identity and religion have again boiled to the surface across Europe, with the Israel-Hamas war<\/a> and the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran<\/a> contributing to the rising tensions.<\/p>\n In a statement, the Belgian section of the European Jewish Congress called the blast \u201cpart of a worrying surge in antisemitic acts committed in Belgium\u201d and urged the authorities to strengthen security for Jewish places of worship and other institutions.<\/p>\n In his social media post, Mr. Quintin, the country\u2019s interior minister, added that protective measures around sites like the synagogue would be reinforced.<\/p>\n Bart De Wever, the country\u2019s prime minister, expressed solidarity with the Jewish community in Li\u00e8ge and across Belgium in a social media post.<\/p>\n \u201cAntisemitism is an attack on our values and our society, and we must fight it unequivocally,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n The terrorism threat in Belgium has been set at Level 3<\/a>, or \u201cserious,\u201d for several years. There are four levels in total. The setting was last raised after a 45-year-old man shot dead two Swedish nationals<\/a> in Brussels in October 2023.<\/p>\n March 22 will be the 10th anniversary of the Brussels terrorist attacks<\/a>, when bombings at an airport and a subway station in 2016 killed 32 people and wounded hundreds more.<\/p>\n