Man held for killing of 2 Israeli embassy staff in Washington
WASHINGTON—Two Israeli embassy staffers, a young couple about to be engaged, were killed by a lone gunman in Washington, on Wednesday night, and a suspect who chanted pro-Palestine slogans is in custody, officials said.
Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in the area of 3rd and F Streets in Northwest, a part of central Washington that is about 2 kilometers from the White House.
Washington Metropolitan Police chief Pamela Smith said a man shot at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both the victims. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting.
The single suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, chanted “Free Palestine, Free Palestine,” after being taken into custody, she said.
“After the shooting, the suspect entered the museum and was detained by event security,” Smith said. “Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offense.”
The suspect had no previous contact with police, she added.
‘Antisemitism’
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told reporters the young man killed had “purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem.”
President Donald Trump condemned the shooting. “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” he said in a message on Truth Social. “Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his heart ached for the families of the victims, “whose lives were cut short by a heinous antisemitic murderer.”
“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel. The blood libels against Israel are rising in blood and must be fought to the bitter end,” he said in a statement.
Security would be stepped up at Israeli embassies around the world, he said.
Germany’s foreign minister expressed his shock at the killing. “Nothing can justify antisemitic violence,” Johann Wadephul wrote in a social media post.
Political ammunition
The shootings could give political ammunition to Netanyahu and his far-right partners to take a harder line in the conflict in Gaza as well as generate sympathy for Israel from Western allies who were piling pressure on him to ease the aid blockade in the war-ravaged territory.
In June 1982, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, was shot in London by the Palestinian Abu Nidal group, founded after splitting from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
The assassination attempt failed but led then-Israeli defense minister Ariel Sharon to launch an offensive on Lebanon’s capital where the PLO had installed its headquarters.
Wednesday’s shooting is also certain to further convulse the US debate over the war in Gaza, which has polarized steadfast supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Conservative Israel supporters led by Trump have branded pro-Palestinian demonstrators as antisemitic.
Trump has cut off funding to elite US universities that he says have permitted antisemitic demonstrations.
