Middle East conflict | Israeli embassy staff killed in Washington

On Wednesday evening, a man shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington. The victims were Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a young couple. Lischinsky had dual German and Israeli citizenship. Police arrested the suspected perpetrator, a 30-year-old from Chicago. A video posted on social media shows a man shouting "Free, Free Palestine" as police led him away. "I did it for Gaza," the perpetrator allegedly said beforehand, an eyewitness told CNN.

US President Donald Trump condemned the attack as "obviously anti-Semitic." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) also reacted with horror. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered increased security measures at Israeli diplomatic missions worldwide.

Felix Klein, the Federal Government's Commissioner for Anti-Semitism, called for greater protection of Jewish institutions in Germany. "There is a fear that such acts will find imitators, even on our streets," Klein told the Funke Media Group newspapers.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar blamed several European countries for the killing of the two embassy employees. "There is a direct connection between anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement and this murder," Saar said at a press conference on Thursday. This "incitement" also comes from officials in many countries and international organizations, especially in Europe, Saar said.

Other Israeli ministers from the far-right spectrum also strongly condemned the incident. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich linked the fatal shootings to "the same burning anti-Semitic hatred" that, he said, triggered the radical Islamist Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. "For thousands of years, the people of Israel have faced attempts at extermination," he stated on the online service Telegram.

The shots were fired on a sidewalk in front of the Jewish Museum in Washington, where an event was taking place. The Israeli Consulate General in Munich reported that Lischinsky grew up in Nuremberg before emigrating to Israel. He was also said to have been promoting Israeli-German friendship and planned to propose to his girlfriend soon, according to Israeli Ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor. "He had already bought the ring for it."

It is unclear why the perpetrator attacked the two embassy employees and whether the victim and the suspected shooter knew each other. He approached a group of four people and then shot them. It is also unclear whether there were any accomplices. The FBI is investigating possible connections to terrorist groups. Further details about the man's background are unclear. Investigators have not yet determined his motive.

A memorial service for Lischinsky and Milgrim took place in front of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin on Thursday afternoon. With agencies