The gunman who fatally shot two Swedish tourists in Brussels, Belgium Monday was fatally shot by Belgian police overnight. This brings yesterday's manhunt for the killer to a close.

The Belgian federal prosecutor’s office confirmed Tuesday that the suspect, whose identity is yet to be confirmed, had been killed.  

 He was spotted by a witness in a cafe in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek shortly after 8:00 a.m. local time on Tuesday, and then shot during an “intervention” by the police, Belgium’s National Crisis Center (NCCN) said.  

 Emergency services attempted to resuscitate the suspect but his death was confirmed at a hospital later that morning, the NCCN added, while a military weapon was found at the cafe.  

 Belgian officials said on Tuesday there could be a link between the attack and the current Israel-Hamas war, Belgium public broadcaster RTBF reported.   

Belgian officials, in a statement, speculated that the shooter's published sympathies for the Islamic State and Palestinian terrorists were a likely motivation for the shooting:

In a video posted on social media, a man identifying himself as the gunman claimed “to be inspired by the Islamic State,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said, adding “the Swedish nationality of the victims was mentioned as a probable motivation for the act.”   

It emerged that the attacker shared a number of messages in support of the Palestinian people on social media and “it is therefore possible that the situation in the Middle East played a role,” the federal prosecutor’s office said Tuesday, according to RTBF.  

Two Swedish nationals were killed in the shooting, which caused the evacuation of an international soccer match at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. The Belgian government raised the country's terror alert level after the shooting, and Belgian police were in evidence on the streets overnight as the hunt for the shooter went on.

As always seems to be the case recently, the suspect posted his likely motivations on social media:

In a video posted on social media, a man identifying himself as the gunman claimed “to be inspired by the Islamic State,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said, adding “the Swedish nationality of the victims was mentioned as a probable motivation for the act.”   

It emerged that the attacker shared a number of messages in support of the Palestinian people on social media and “it is therefore possible that the situation in the Middle East played a role,” the federal prosecutor’s office said Tuesday, according to RTBF.  

See also Teri Christoph's initial report on the shooting.

There are voices in the United States calling for the importation of Gazan refugees; there are, arguably more reasoned voices speaking out against that. Europe has been seeing the results of generations of unchecked, largely unscreened immigration from North Africa and the Middle East, and now we see the results. It is not in the best interest of the United States to allow large numbers of unscreened "refugees" from a region known for its antipathy to Western civilization.

It's also important to note that the gunman was reported to have used a "Kalashnikov-style" rifle in the shooting, which rifle is prohibited in Belgium; this may well be an indicator that the gunman had outside support in smuggling the weapon into the country. If that is the case, European authorities can expect more, similar attacks; it is just as possible to smuggle in 500 AK-pattern rifles as one, and it's impossible to know in whose hands those may be until another shooter takes action.

It's also important to note that this kind of event is far from impossible here in the United States, especially in those major cities where pro-Palestinian protests are taking place.