JERUSALEM/BRUSSELS: Israel on Sunday blamed rising anti-Semitism in Europe for a shooting attack which killed two Israelis, even as prosecutors in Brussels said they are looking for a lone suspect in the lethal weekend shooting spree at the Brussels Jewish Museum that left three people dead and one in critical condition.

Deputy prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch said the suspect “probably acted alone, was armed and well prepared.” Police had detained one suspect late Saturday but he was soon released and is now considered a witness.

“Nobody has claimed this attack. All options are still open,” Van Wymersch said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raked up the issue of a Jewish state and lashed out at Europe for “hypocrisy.”

As officials confirmed two Israelis and a French national had been killed in Saturday’s deadly attack on the Jewish museum in the Belgian capital, Netanyahu was quick to hail Pope Francis for his “determined stance” against anti-Semitism.

“We appreciate the pope’s determined stance against anti-Semitism, especially in light of the growing hatred of Jews that we are witness to in these days,” Netanyahu said just hours ahead of the pontiff’s arrival in Israel as part of a three-day Middle East tour. The afternoon shooting shocked Belgium and drew condemnation from top European leaders, although Brussels said it could not immediately confirm whether it was “a terrorist or anti-Semitic act.”

But Netanyahu said the attack was a result of “incessant incitement against Israel by different elements in the Middle East and Europe itself,” denouncing Europe for what he said was a hypocritical attitude to Israel.

“There are elements in Europe that rush to condemn the construction of a flat in Jerusalem but who do not rush to condemn, or offer only a weak condemnation of the murder of Jews here or in Europe itself,” he said, referring to Israel’s ongoing settlement construction in the West Bank and in annexed east Jerusalem.

“Even worse, they applaud unity with terror groups like Hamas, which calls for the destruction of Israel,” he said, referring to Europe’s welcoming of an intra-Palestinian reconciliation agreement between leaders in the West Bank and the Islamist rulers of Gaza.

“We oppose this hypocrisy, we defy it,” he said.

Earlier, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP the two victims were a married couple in their 50s from Tel Aviv who were touring in Belgium.

“We have confidence in the Belgian authorities, in the justice system and the police to look into this horrible crime,” he said.

The attack, which took place in central Brussels on Saturday afternoon, left a fourth person, whose identity was not clear, in critical condition.

Israeli President Shimon Peres also called upon European leaders to act against “any form of anti-Semitism” which he said was “rearing its head across the continent.” He also spoke with the Jewish leadership in Belgium.

It was the first fatal attack on a Belgian Jewish centre since the early 1980s in a country which is home to 40,000 Jews, roughly half of whom live in the capital.

An Israeli couple and a French woman were killed and a Belgian was injured in the attack.

The attack, which came on the eve of national and European Parliament elections, led officials to immediately raise anti-terror measures and protection of Jewish sites.

A motive was not yet given, but the government has said it had the hallmarks of an anti-Semitic attack.