Killing

The Jewish Museum of Belgium occupies a townhouse on rue des Minimes, in the Sablon district, at the heart of Brussels. On 24 May 2014, a gunman entered the lobby, opened fire on those present with an assault rifle, and left within seconds. An Israeli couple visiting as tourists, a French volunteer, and a Belgian employee were shot dead. The perpetrator, Mehdi Nemmouche, a French national who had returned from Syria after joining the Islamic State, was arrested a few days later in Marseille; he would be sentenced to life imprisonment. The attack was the first carried out in Europe by a fighter returning from Syria, and it lastingly established armed protection in front of Jewish institutions across the continent.