Belgium police arrest man of 'Palestinian origin' as tensions remain high before EU summit

He reportedly threatened to 'die as a martyr by exploding himself' after his family was killed in Gaza

Belgian police officers secure Grand-Place square in Brussels after two Swedish football fans were shot dead on October 17. EPA

Belgian police have arrested a man of Palestinian origin after media reports that he threatened to “die as a martyr by exploding himself”, the Brussels prosecutor's office has told The National.

“The federal police will be checking his identity,” they said.

He is reportedly an asylum seeker who was apprehended in the Brussels municipality of Anderlecht.

Belgian news agency Belga reported that the man, who has not been publicly identified, told immigration services on Tuesday that he wanted to die after learning that his entire family had been killed in Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip.

“He was immediately signalled at a national level, triggering a manhunt by police units across the country,” reported Belga.

The incident suggests tensions remain high across Belgium, nine days after a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia, Abdelsalam Lassoued, gunned down two Swedes in Brussels before being shot and killed by police.

Lassoued said he was inspired by Islamic State, which later claimed the attack, and cited his anger at controversial Quran burnings in Sweden as one of the reasons for the murders.

But Belgian investigators have not excluded that he may have also been triggered by the Israel-Gaza war.

The incident caused shock waves across Belgium after it emerged that Tunisia had requested the extradition of Lassoued in August 2022 but a Belgian judge had failed to follow up on the demand.

Justice Minister Vincent van Quickenborne resigned on Friday, citing an “inexcusable error.”

A lack of communication between Belgian agencies and with police in Sweden, where Lassoued had been jailed previously, also enabled him to stay in Belgium illegally after his asylum request was denied in 2020.

On Tuesday charged two men were charged in France over suspected links to the shooting.

Wednesday's manhunt came on the eve of the two-day European Union summit in Brussels, where the 27 EU leaders will discuss, among other things, the Israel-Gaza war.

EU leaders are expected to call for a “humanitarian pause” in the Gaza strip, where 6,546 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, according to the health ministry, after an unprecedented Hamas attack killed more than 1,400 Israelis on October 7.