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Belgium police publish photos of Brussels Jewish Museum shooter

Police publish images and video of shooter entering museum and firing, as fourth person dies from wounds sustained during deadly shooting which killed Israeli couple, French woman.

The Belgian police published photos Sunday of the shooter who entered the Brussels' Jewish Museum with a rifle and opened fire, as a fourth person died after succumbing to wounds suffered in the attack in Brussels.

 

 

The police are still conducting a man hunt for what they believe to be a lone shooter in an attack many in Israel and Belgium have already declared an anti-Semitic attack.

 

The images were taken from the museum's security camera and were published in a bid to help law enforcement officials find the perpetrator.

 

 

In the images the shooters can be seen moving towards the museum with two large bags – in contradiction to initial claims that he had arrived in a Audi car – and in another he can be seen firing a Kalashnikov rifle.

 



 

Meanwhile, a young man who was critically injured by gunshot in the attack has died of his wounds while doctors fought for his life at a local hospital, a Jewish community leader said Sunday.

 

Joel Rubinfeld, head of the Belgian League against Anti-Semitism, told AFP that the injured man, who was in his early 20s and worked as a receptionist at the museum, died in the afternoon.

 

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Emanuel (54) and Miriam (53) Riva from Tel Aviv, an Israeli couple from Tel Aviv, were also killed in the shooting at the Brussels Jewish Museum Saturday, the Foreign Ministry cleared for publication on Sunday. The couple left two daughters behind - 16 and 15 years old.

 

An additional casualty was a French volunteer at the museum, a woman in her 60s.

 

Pope Francis on Sunday condemned the deadly shootings at the museum as anti-Semitism upon his arrival in Israel for the final leg of a Holy Land pilgrimage, joining a long list of Jewish and world leaders to condemn the killings.

 

Belgium launched a nationwide manhunt Sunday for a lone suspect in a shooting attack at the Brussels Jewish Museum as the toll in the attack rose to four dead.

 

The attack, which came on the eve of national and European Parliament elections, led officials to immediately raise anti-terror measures and increase the protection for Jewish sites.

 

Video of the attack showed an athletic man with cap calmly walking into the Jewish Museum, getting out a Kalashnikov shoulder rifle and starting to shoot before briskly walking away.

 

No one has claimed responsibility for the killings.

 

"We call on the whole population to help identify this person," deputy prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said Sunday.

 

She said the gunman who killed an Israeli tourist couple, a French woman and a Belgian man with shots to the face and throat "probably acted alone, was armed and well prepared."

 

The fourth victim died Sunday afternoon, said a government official who asked not to be identified because the news had not yet been officially announced.

 

Officials said the shooter parked a car in the swanky Sablon area of antique dealers, hip cafes and art galleries. The museum said in a statement the gunman came in, started shooting at the tourist couple at the entry "and then went on to the reception, where he shot the attendant."

 

Police detained one suspect late Saturday but he was soon released and is now considered a witness.

 

Van Wymersch said "all options are still open" regarding a motive for the shooting spree but the government has said it had the hallmarks of an anti-Semitic attack.

 

On the heels of the Brussels attack, two Jewish men were attacked as they left a synagogue in the Paris area late Saturday.

 

As in Belgium, Interior Minister Bernard Caseneuve ordered police around France to increase security at Jewish houses of worship and other Jewish establishments.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the shooting on European incitement against Israel and criticized what he called "weak condemnation" of anti-Semitic acts.

 

"There are those in Europe that are quick to condemn every building of an apartment in Jerusalem, but do not rush to condemn, or condemn with weak condemnations, the murder of Jews here or in Europe itself," Netanyahu said at the opening of his weekly Cabinet meeting that

 

Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo swiftly condemned the attack and said Belgium stands united with its Jewish community of 40,000.

 

He also called Netanyahu early Sunday "to express the deep solidarity of Belgium with the Israeli population."

 

Afterward, Netanyahu was quoted as saying that Di Rupo was the "only European leader who called me about this matter."

 

European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor planned to meet Di Rupo on Sunday.

 

"Attacks on Jewish targets in Europe do not exist in a vacuum, but are part and parcel of an overall climate of hate and incitement against Jewish communities," Kantor said.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.25.14, 18:35
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