The Israeli embassy workers killed in DC were at the Gaza aid event

After Joni Kalin and his wife Jojo had broken out in front of a humanitarian auxiliary event for Gaza at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in Washington, Yoni Kalin and his wife Jojo observed how the museum's security stormed away from the doors and just fell back.

Among those who came in, Kalin was a man who seemed excited to take Kalin and others in the museum for the first time for a demonstrator and that at the moment they arrived “went straight to the police,” said Kalin.

“” I did that for Gaza. Free Palestine, “remembered Kalin of the man who told the officer in an interview with Times Thursday.” He went to his free Palestine. There is only one solution. Intifada Revolution ' – you know the usual chants. “

Kalin, a 31-year-old Washington, DC, resident in Biotech, said that he still had no idea that two employees of the Israeli embassy had been fatally shot outside. When the police started pulling the man away and he dropped a red Kaffiyeh or a traditional Arabic headdress, Kalin took him and tried to return it, he said.

The event that night – the Kalins wife with the American Jewish Committee and the humanitarian auxiliary groups Multifaith Alliance and Israaid had helped “everything was about building bridges and humanitarian support and support,” said Kalin and he found that he had reconciled with this ethos.

“I regret that now,” said Kalin on Thursday morning after an almost troubled night. “I regret having touched it.”

Like so many other mourners across the country, Kalin said that it was difficult for him to process the “surreal, terrible” attack, and his appearance at an event that aims to increase the cooperation and understanding between Israelis, Palestinians and Americans.

“I do not believe that in this situation he will actually help the Palestinian or Gazaners to shout” free Palestine “or” Free Gaza “, especially in view of the fact that he murdered people who actually try to help or contribute to these auxiliary measures,” said Kalin about the shooter. “It's a really sick irony.”

Israeli civil servants identified the two victims as employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington. The Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that Yaron Lischinsky was Israeli citizen and research assistant, and Sarah Milgrim was a US citizen who organized visits and missions to Israel. The Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said that the two were a couple, and Lischinsky recently bought and planned a ring and planned to propose Milgrim in Jerusalem next week.

The US authorities described the shootout as a “terrorist act” and identified the suspect as Elias Rodriguez, 31, from Chicago. Pamela Smith, chief of police at Metropolitan, said that Rodriguez was up and down in front of the museum in front of the museum and was later arrested by security after walking inside.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, said the agency was “aware of certain writings that were allegedly written by the suspect, and we hope to have updates about authenticity very soon.” He said Rodriguez was interviewed by the law enforcement authorities early Thursday morning and that the FBI did not believe that the public gave a continued threat.

President Trump, who spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the USA on Thursday. General Pam Bondi promised both justice at the shootout.

“These terrible DC murders, which are obviously based on anti -Semitism, now have to end!” Trump posted on social media. “Hate and radicalism have no place in the USA.”

Israel Bachar, the Consul General for the US -American Pacific south vest in Los Angeles, said that security was increased with the help of the American law enforcement authorities and the local police in the consules and in other Jewish institutions.

The shootout takes place in the middle of the recent great offensive of Israel in the Gaza Strip in a war since October 7, 2023, when Israel was attacked by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The attack launched from Gaza Strip killed 1,200 people while the Hamas demanded about 250 hostages. The reaction of Israel devastated the Gaza Strip in the Gaza and, according to local health authorities, has more than 53,000 people, mainly women and children.

About 90% of the around 2 million inhabitants of the territory were driven out. A large part of the urban strip of Gaza has been bombarded and destroyed, and Israel has blocked great relief goods by entering the territory and triggered a massive hunger crisis. The protests of Israel's actions have spread all over the world and in the United States, which is an important weapon supplier for Israel.

Brian Levin, founder of the center for studying hatred and extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said that anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim attacks have increased in the USA for decades when conflicts occur in the Middle East-and the current war of Israel is no exception.

“With the worst conflict that the region has seen for years, with a terrible loss of life and eventful images of suffering, which takes place in Gaza Strip, the soil becomes soft for anti -Semitism,” said Levin.

Especially in recent years, the spread of such image and misinformation in social media has “produced a rabbit hole in which people can become increasingly radical”, and where the retaliation against everyone who is also affiliated with an unfavorable group, asks to drown peace messages, compassion and help, said Levin.

“Unfortunately, we were caught at a time when the peaceful interreligious voices were washed like a tsunami and left a vacuum that creates overseas in overseas,” he said. “We see that again and again-we have seen it with 9/11 communities stereotypical and broad and in certain niches are called the legitimate goal for aggression and eats like a fire of themselves, in which they ended up murdered completely innocent people.”

Several organizations have described that Lischinsky and Milgrim are committed to peace and humanitarian aid work. Kalin said that many of the people were event at the museum – and will continue to be.

“This act of violence only causes me to build bridges even more. I think we have to strengthen the coalition. We need more Muslims, we need more Christians, we need more Israelis, we need more Palestinians,” said Kalin. “We need people who believe that peace is the answer – and that hate and violence will not solve this problem.”