Three Masked Arsonists Target Jewish-Owned Restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium

Shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Monday, three masked men poured flammable liquid over a parked car on Appelmansstraat in Antwerp's Jewish Quarter and set it ablaze. The Flemish broadcaster VRT reported that the vehicle was set alight at the intersection of Appelmansstraat and Vestingstraat, and law enforcement arrested two minors suspected of being involved in the incident. Police moved quickly: both suspects, each from the city, were in custody about 15 minutes after the fire started.

The emergent Islamist group Ashab al Yamin claimed responsibility, publishing a video that appears to show three masked individuals setting the vehicle on fire; in the footage, they appear to pour flammable liquid over it before igniting it. The vehicle was parked outside a Jewish-owned business, though the car's actual owner is not Jewish. The arsonists believed it belonged to a Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, individual. At the scene, the owner, a woman identified only by her first name Fatia, who did not specify her religion, said valuables had been stolen from her vehicle before it was set ablaze.

The fire did not consume the block. The car was parked in the diamond district, home to much of Antwerp's Orthodox Jewish community, and night patrol teams from the Jewish volunteer groups Haverim and Shmira extinguished the flames before they could spread to nearby vehicles. Patrol teams continued overnight rounds to help secure the community.

A judge was requested for "intentional arson at night and for participation in the activities of a terrorist group." Despite the claim by Ashab al Yamin and the group's past activity across Europe in recent weeks, the incident is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, not terrorism. The Antwerp prosecutor's office told CBS News that the two minors had not yet been questioned and that investigators were still considering "all possibilities," though prosecutors were aware of the claim video circulating on social media and added it to the case file.

In their claim of responsibility, Ashab al Yamin wrote in Arabic, Hebrew, and English that Antwerp is one of the most "important European cities" and has a "large Zionist community, which has given it a special religious and cultural significance for some Jews, and it is sometimes called the 'Jerusalem of the North.'" The group singled out Appelmansstraat by name, pointing to the city's role in the global diamond trade as part of its targeting rationale.

The Antwerp attack raised the total number of attacks claimed by Ashab al Yamin to seven since the group first emerged in early March. Its targets have included a synagogue, a Jewish school, and an American-owned bank in the Netherlands, as well as a synagogue in Belgium, and an unidentified site in Greece. The day before the Antwerp fire, the group said it was behind an arson attack on four ambulances owned by a Jewish non-profit in London. Dutch police had already arrested five teenagers in connection with a March 13 explosion at a synagogue in Rotterdam that was also claimed by Ashab al Yamin.

Joe Truzman, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, assessed that "given the available evidence, it is likely that Ashab al Yamin is not an established terrorist organization, rather a facade group created by Iran to obscure its involvement in the attacks." Analysts note that the group's videos have been amateurish and contain linguistic errors, though experts warn that unsophisticated beginnings do not guarantee a contained threat. "The danger is that, as this war continues, attacks will be bigger," one analyst told CBS News. "Whoever is behind the group wants to make a statement."

Soldiers have been deployed on the streets of Belgian cities to provide extra security after attacks on Jewish sites in Belgium and the Netherlands. Zvi Graskopf, head of Shomrim Antwerp, said security around community institutions had been stepped up in recent weeks following an explosion at a synagogue in Liège and other incidents. Operational responsibility remains with the Belgian federal police, coordinated with the Defense Ministry, while Jewish volunteer organizations maintain their own nightly patrols through the quarter.