Washington (AP) – Two staff of the Israeli Embassy in Washington – A young couple about to get involved – was fatally shot down on Wednesday evening when they left an event in a Jewish museum, and the suspect shouted, “free and free Palestine” after his arrest, police said.
The attack was considered by officials in Israel and the United States as the last of an increasing wave of anti-Semitism while Israel increases its offensive in the Gaza Strip, and as food security experts warned that Gaza Risks Fall into famine unless The blockade of Israel ends.
The Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said that the man had bought a ring this week with the intention of offering next week in Jerusalem.
Here is what we know:
What happened?
The two victims, a man and a woman, left an event in capital Jewish Museum around 9:15 p.m. Wednesday when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, said Metropolitan Police Pamela Smith At a press conference.
The suspect was observed outside the museum before the shooting, entered the museum after the shooting and was detained by the security of the event, said Smith.
When it was placed in police custody, the suspect began singing “free and free Palestine,” said Smith. She said the police did not think there was a continuous threat to the community.
Violence occurred following the annual reception of young diplomats of the American Jewish Committee at the museum.
Who is the suspect?
The suspect was identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, from Chicago.
He was not immediately clear if Rodriguez had a lawyer who could comment on his name. A telephone number listed in public archives sounded unanswered.
He was interviewed early Thursday by the DC metropolitan police department as well as by the FBI. The American lawyer in Washington will continue the case.
Who are the victims?
The Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims like Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was research assistant and Milgrim organized visits and missions in Israel.
The former Israeli ambassador to the United States Mike Herzog told the Israeli army radio that the woman killed was an US Embassy employee and that the man was Israeli.
What is Israel’s reaction?
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he was “shocked” by the shooting “horrible and anti -Semitic”.
“We are witnessing the terrible price of anti-Semitism and wild incentives against Israel,” he said in a statement.
In the past, Israeli diplomats have been targeted by violence, both by attackers supported by the state and Palestinian activists during the decades of the Israeli -Palestinian conflict in the broad sense which was born from the shore or the West Shore for an east state, with Eastern Jerusalem as capital – of the Gaza and the West Rive for a future state, East Jerusalem as capital – Lands Israel Israel captured in the 1967 War. However, the peace process between the parties has been in a standstill for years.
Witnesses of the attack
Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard shots and a man entered distress, they said. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking that he needed help, without realizing that he was the suspect. When the police arrived, he released a red keffiyeh and shouted several times: “free Palestine”, “said Kalin.
“This event focused on humanitarian aid,” said Kalin. “How can we really help people from Gaza and the inhabitants of Israel?” How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to really help innocent? And then here, he murdered two people in the cold. ”
The influential Panarabe satellite channel, Al Jazeera, broadcast on a loop which seemed to be mobile telephony images of the alleged shooter, wearing a costume jacket and pants, far away after the shooting, its hands behind its back.
The new Israel campaign in Gaza
The shooting comes as Israel launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has Define the tensions in flame through the wider Middle East. The war started with the Palestinian militant group of Hamas out of Gaza on October 7, 2023 to kill 1,200 people and bring back some 250 hostages in the coastal enclave.
Since time, since, Devastating campaign of Israel in Gaza Has killed more than 53,000 people, mainly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not make the difference between combatants and civilians.
The fighting moved 90% of the population of around 2 million inhabitants of the territory, triggered a hunger crisis and erased vast expanses of the Gaza Urban Landscape. The aid groups lacked food to distribute weeks ago, and most of the population of around 2.3 million is based on municipal kitchens whose supplies are almost exhausted.
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The story has been updated to correct the age of the suspect at 31, against 30, on the basis of the news for the police.
