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Two staff of the Israeli embassy in Washington were shot and killed outside an event at the Jewish museum in the US capital late on Wednesday.
“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Kristi Noem, homeland security secretary, wrote on social media platform X.
She said the department was investigating and vowed to “bring this depraved perpetrator to justice”.
Tal Naim Cohen, the spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said the staffers were “shot this evening at close range” in a post on X. She said they had been attending “a Jewish event” at the museum.
“We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States,” she added.
FBI director Kash Patel wrote that he and his team had been briefed on the incident. “While we’re working with MPD [the Metropolitan Police Department] to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families,” he wrote. “We will keep the public updated as we are able.”
Attorney-general Pam Bondi wrote on X that she was on the scene of the “horrible shooting.”
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called the shooting “a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism”.
“Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line,” he wrote on X. “Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives — everywhere in the world.”
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, said on X: “This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society.”
