Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Brussels Airport Terrorists ‘Really Wanted To Kill a Jew’: Report

Jews and Israelis were specifically targeted in the Islamic State suicide bombing on the Brussels airport on March 22, 2016, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.

A Belgian-led investigation has indicated that the the bombers targeted travelers to Israel. One of the attackers pursued a group of Hasidic Jews before detonating the explosive device.

“The attacker seemed to rush towards two Orthodox Jews,” an unnamed source close to the investigation told AFP. “He really, clearly wanted to kill a Jew.”

A source also said that the attackers were “obsessed with the Israelis.”

A check-in counter for Delta Airlines was also targeted.

“We know they wanted to target Americans,” said one source. “It’s clear they had quite specific targets.”

Four Americans were among the 32 victims at the airport and a twin attack on a Brussels subway station. Two ultra-Orthodox Israelis were injured.

Three attackers, Najim Laachraoui and brothers Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui were killed.

Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.