Two Israeli embassy staff killed in Washington shooting
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The news: Two Israeli Embassy staff members were fatally shot near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC just after 9pm ET on Wednesday night.
The context: The suspect, who has been arrested, reportedly chanted “Free, free Palestine!” as he was taken into custody.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said that the attack appeared to be an act of targeted violence. Police said that they believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, who had been pacing outside the museum in the US capital before approaching four people with a handgun and opening fire.
Rodriguez was arrested when he went inside the museum and told officers where he had discarded the gun and implied that he carried out the shooting, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news briefing.
The two victims, Sarah Lynn Milgrim and her partner Yaron Lischinsky, worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and had been attending a ‘Young Diplomats Reception’ at the museum.
The news follows an incident in the West Bank on Wednesday, during which the Israeli Defence Force fired “warning shots” at a delegation of diplomats visiting Jenin in the occupied enclave.
What they said: Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday: “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said via X that the shooting was a “depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism…Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line,” Danon added.
