Two Israeli embassy staffers, one of them an American, were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine” as he was arrested.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led global condemnation of the attack, both of them blaming anti-Semitism.
“Blood libels against Israel are paid in blood — and they must be fought relentlessly,” Netanyahu said in a statement, ordering a boost in security at Israeli embassies around the world.
Photo: AFP
Shots rang out on the sidewalk outside the Capital Jewish Museum, 1.6km from the White House, late on Wednesday as it held an event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.
Emergency vehicles remained at the scene in the early hours yesterday after police taped off the area in the heart of the US capital.
Israel identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a US employee of the embassy, and said they were a couple who might have been planning to marry.
Lischinsky was a research assistant at the Israeli embassy, while Milgrim worked for its public diplomacy department, their LinkedIn profiles showed.
Lischinsky was a Christian, according to the online newspaper The Times of Israel, for whom he had previously worked as a blogger.
Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith identified the shooter as a 30-year-old from Chicago, Elias Rodriguez, and said he was in custody.
Video of his arrest by police showed the bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting: “Free, free Palestine” as he was led away.
The attack came days after the museum was awarded a grant to boost security, as anti-Semitism surges worldwide since Israel’s devastating invasion of Gaza, prompted by the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian militants Hamas.
Witnesses reportedly said that security personnel appeared to mistake the man for a victim of the shooting and allowed him into the museum, where he was comforted by bystanders before claiming responsibility for the attack.
“Some of the people at the event brought him water. They sat him down. ‘Are you OK? Were you shot? What happened?’ And he’s like: ‘Somebody call the cops,’” Yoni Kalin, who was in the museum, told US media.
Smith told reporters that the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum before the shooting at about 9pm.
“He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire,” she said.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter told reporters the young staffers were a couple about to get engaged.
“The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” Leiter said. “They were a beautiful couple.”
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
SOUTH CHINA SEA? The Philippine president spoke of adding more classrooms and power plants, while skipping tensions with China over disputed areas Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday blasted “useless and crumbling” flood control projects in a state of the nation address that focused on domestic issues after a months-long feud with his vice president. Addressing a joint session of congress after days of rain that left at least 31 dead, Marcos repeated his recent warning that the nation faced a climate change-driven “new normal,” while pledging to investigate publicly funded projects that had failed. “Let’s not pretend, the people know that these projects can breed corruption. Kickbacks ... for the boys,” he said, citing houses that were “swept away” by the floods. “Someone has
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
RSS