Israeli embassy staff members shot dead near Jewish museum in Washington DC

Two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC have been shot and killed while leaving an event at a Jewish museum, police said.

Officers said the suspect yelled, “Free, free Palestine” after he was arrested following the attack on Wednesday evening.

The shooting prompted Israeli missions to beef up their security and lower their flags to half-staff.

It came as Israel launched another major offensive in the Gaza Strip in a war with Hamas that has heightened tensions across the Middle East and internationally and as antisemitic acts are on the rise.

The two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said.

He added that the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect, who had been seen pacing outside the museum, approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.

The man, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, then walked into the museum, was detained by event security and began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” Ms Smith added.

Israeli officials identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Milgrim, an American.

Mr Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Ms Milgrim organised visits and missions to Israel.

“These horrible DC killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” US President Donald Trump posted on social media early Thursday.

“Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that he was “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic” shooting.

“We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and wild incitement against Israel,” he said in a statement.

Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said the two people killed were a young couple about to be engaged, saying the man had purchased a ring this week with the intent to propose next week in Jerusalem.

Their identities were not immediately made public.

Former Israeli ambassador to the US Mike Herzog told Israeli Army Radio that the woman killed was an American employee of the embassy and the man was Israeli.

Attorney general Pam Bondi said she was at the scene with former judge Jeanine Pirro, who serves as the US attorney in Washington and whose office would prosecute the case.

The statement from Mr Netanyahu’s office said he spoke to Ms Bondi, who told him Mr Trump was “involved in managing the incident” and the US would bring the perpetrator to justice.

It was not immediately clear whether Rodriguez had an lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

A telephone number listed in public records rang unanswered.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, wrote in a post on social media that “early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence”.

The influential pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera aired on a loop what appeared to be mobile phone footage of the alleged gunman, wearing a suit jacket and slacks, being pulled away after the shooting, his hands behind his back.

The shooting comes as Israel has launched a new campaign targeting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in a war that has set tensions aflame across the wider Middle East.

The war began with the Palestinian militant group Hamas coming out of Gaza on October 7, 2023 to kill 1,200 people and take some 250 hostages back to the coastal enclave.

In the time since, Israel’s devastating campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities, whose count does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The fighting has displaced 90% of the territory’s roughly 2 million population, sparked a hunger crisis and obliterated vast swaths of Gaza’s urban landscape.

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came inside looking distressed, they said.

Mr Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, without realising he was the suspect.

When police arrived, he pulled out a red keffiyeh and repeatedly yelled, “Free Palestine,’” Mr Kalin said.

“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Mr Kalin said. “How can we actually help both the people in Gaza and the people in Israel?

“How can we bring together Muslims and Jews and Christians to work together to actually help innocent people? And then here he is just murdering two people in cold blood.”

Last week, the Capital Jewish Museum was one of the local non-profits in Washington DC awarded funding from a 500,000 dollar grant programme to increase its security.

The museum’s leaders were concerned because it is a Jewish organisation and due to its new LGBT exhibit, according to NBC4 Washington.

“We recognise that there are threats associated with this as well,” executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told the TV station.

“And again, we want to ensure that our space is as welcoming and secure for everybody who comes here while we are exploring these stories.”

In response to the shooting, the museum said in a statement that they are “deeply saddened and horrified by the senseless violence outside the Museum this evening”.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington chief executive Gil Preuss said in a statement that he was horrified by the shooting and mourned the loss of the two people killed.

“Our hearts are with their families and loved ones, and with all of those who are impacted by this tragic act of antisemitic violence,” he said.

Israeli diplomats in the past have been targeted by violence, both by state-backed assailants and Palestinian militants over the decades of the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict that grew out of the founding of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek Gaza and the West Bank for a future state, with east Jerusalem as its capital — lands Israel captured in the 1967 war.

However, the peace process between the sides has been stalled for years.