BRUSSELS: Belgian legislators are working on a resolution to recognize a Palestinian state but the government says any timing to proceed will depend on European Union action.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said he first would push for a new EU initiative to bring Israel and the Palestinian authorities back to the negotiating table to reinvigorate the peace process.
Belgian legislators are completing work on a text and it was still unclear when the resolution would be tabled, said an official from a leading coalition party, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process was continuing.
On Tuesday, France’s lower house already voted to urge the government to recognize a Palestinian state. On Oct. 30, Sweden became the first western European nation to recognize Palestinian statehood.
Meanwhile, an Israeli security guard shot a Palestinian teenager who stabbed two people in a supermarket near a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.
The incident occurred in the Rami Levi supermarket near Maale Adumim, a large settlement east of Jerusalem.
Police said the two people stabbed by the attacker, whom they identified as a 16-year-old Palestinian, were taken to hospital with moderate injuries. The condition of the assailant was not immediately clear.
Belgium works to recognize Palestine state
Belgium works to recognize Palestine state
Hundreds mourn in Syria’s Homs after deadly mosque bombing
- Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect
HOMS: Hundreds of mourners gathered Saturday despite rain and cold outside of a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs where a bombing the day before killed eight people and wounded 18.
The crowd gathered next to the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al-Dhahab neighborhood, where the population is predominantly from the Alawite minority, before driving in convoys to bury the victims.
Officials have said the preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque but have not yet publicly identified a suspect.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, in which it indicated that the attack intended to target members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam whom hard-line Islamists consider to be apostates.
The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.
A neighbor of the mosque, who asked to be identified only by the honorific Abu Ahmad (“father of Ahmad“) out of security concerns, said he was at home when he heard the sound of a “very very strong explosion.”
He and other neighbors went to the mosque and saw terrified people running out of it, he said. They entered and began trying to help the wounded, amid blood and scattered body parts on the floor.
While the neighborhood is primarily Alawite, he said the mosque had always been open to members of all sects to pray.
“It’s the house of God,” he said. “The mosque’s door is open to everyone. No one ever asked questions. Whoever wants to enter can enter.”
Mourners were unable to enter the mosque to pray Saturday because the crime scene remained cordoned off, so they prayed outside.
Some then marched through the streets chanting “Ya Ali,” in reference to the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law whom Shiite Muslims consider to be his rightful successor.
