Moshe Yitzhak Na’eh, who was shot in the head overnight Wednesday in Antwerp in what seems to be an anti-Semitic attack, died of his wounds late yesterday afternoon, the Belgium’s Prosecutors Office announced.

The prosecutor’s spokeswoman, Dominique Reniers said, “We do not exclude any motive, but so far there are no indications that the motive was racist or extremist,” she said.

Ms. Reniers called the victim a “devout young man” who was shot from close range. He slumped on to the road, where he was discovered by passers-by who initially thought he was a road accident victim.

There were no witnesses to the shooting. Na’eh, 24, a fervently Orthodox Jew and a father of three – the oldest five years old, the youngest an 18-month-old baby – was shot at about 2:20 a.m. on Lange Kievitstraat, near a Muslim neighborhood in Antwerp, Belgium, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities.

Speaking from Na’eh’s bedside in an Antwerp hospital before he passed away, Na’eh’s sister, who asked that her name not be published, said the family was praying for her brother to survive the attack. “As long as there is life there is hope,” she said, adding that all the Jewish schools in Antwerp were saying Tehillim for her brother’s recovery.

Belgian federal police are investigating the incident, which seems to be a hate crime, as Na’eh’s money was not stolen and he was not involved in any criminal deeds.

The editor-in-chief of the Belgian Jewish Weekly, Louis Davids, said that the shooting in Antwerp made headline news on all TV and radio stations yesterday. “Belgian Jews are worried about the escalating violence in their neighborhood. The young man was an integral part of the close-knit Jewish community; for that reason many are distraught and shocked,” Mr. Davids said. Mr. Davids added that police have increased their patrols of the Jewish areas to reassure citizens. The local police have also assigned a large team on this case to uncover the facts as soon as possible.

Both Na’eh and his father serve as gabays, or custodians, of the Pshevorski Rebbe in Antwerp, where Na’eh grew up. He finished work at the house of the rebbe, located in the same building of the community’s synagogue, at 1:30 a.m. yesterday, according to Yehuda Ceitlin, a correspondent of the European Jewish Press.

The rebbe’s house is located near a bridge separating the Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods of Antwerp. Na’eh was walking along the bridge on his way home when he was shot in the head at close range.

He was quickly rushed to hospital, where doctors struggled to keep him alive.

“If this is indeed an anti-Semitic act,” Mr. Ceitlin said, “this is a big change in Belgium. There have been anti-Semitic stabbings here, punches – but never shooting.”

“The Jewish community here is very worried,” Mr. Ceitlin said yesterday.

He added that he was informed that at the time of the shooting Na’eh was carrying in his pockets roughly $1,684, which the attackers did not steal.

“This is further evidence that the attack might have been an anti-Semitic incident,” Mr. Ceitlin said.

Representatives of the Antwerp Police and the Belgium Justice Ministry held a press conference yesterday to officially address the incident. “They didn’t give away any new information,” Mr. Ceitlin said. “They did, however, call Belgium Jewish leaders prior to the meeting and asked them not to participate in it, so as not to turn the press conference into a ‘Jewish happening,'” he said.

In July, two Jews were physically assaulted on the streets of Antwerp, including g a cyclist who was attacked by a group of 15 people hurling stones and bottles.

Belgium’s foreign minister had condemned the July attacks, saying, “This latest act of cowardly violence in Antwerp, where the sole motivation was that the victim was Jewish, is both despicable and unacceptable.”

Earlier in July, some 1,000 people took part in a demonstration organized by Antwerp’s Jewish community demanding “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism in Belgium.

Belgium’s Jewish community head, Joseph Wybran, was shot and killed in Brussels in 1989. Four other Jews were wounded in 1982 when gunmen opened fire on a Brussels synagogue. Both attacks were blamed on Palestinian Arab groups.

There has been growing tension in Antwerp between its Muslim and Jewish communities, especially in the last four years of escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs.

Most of Antwerp’s large Jewish Hassidic community is located in the Diamond District, near the Central Station.

Estimates of the number of Jewish citizens in Antwerp today vary from 15,000 to 20,000.

Before World War II, the Jewish community of Antwerp numbered more than 55,000 people.