Israeli embassy staff shot dead, aid trucks finally allowed into Gaza

Two Israeli embassy staffers committed to Israel-Palestinian dialogue were killed by a lone gunman in Washington DC, on Wednesday night.

The two were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum. Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said a man shot at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both the victims. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting.

The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were locally employed staff, the Israeli foreign ministry said. They were both trying to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, according to separate advocacy groups of which they were part.

Smith said the single suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, chanted "Free Palestine, Free Palestine", after being taken into custody by event security having entered the museum.

"Once in handcuffs, the suspect identified where he discarded the weapon, and that weapon has been recovered, and he implied that he committed the offense," she said, adding that he had had no previous contact with police.

U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the shooting. "These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!" he said in a message on Truth Social. "Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his heart ached for the families of the victims, "whose lives were cut short in a moment by an abhorrent antisemitic murderer."

Security would be stepped up at Israeli embassies around the world, he said.

Aid trucks enter Gaza after delays

Israel allowed 100 aid trucks carrying flour, baby food and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Israeli military said, as UN officials reported that distribution issues had meant that no aid had so far reached people in need.

After an 11-week blockade on supplies entering Gaza, the Israeli military said a total of 98 aid trucks entered on Monday and Tuesday. But even those minimal supplies have not made it to Gaza's soup kitchens, bakeries, markets and hospitals, according to aid officials and local bakeries that were standing by to receive supplies of flour.

"None of this aid – that is a very limited number of trucks – has reached the Gaza population," said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme.

Thousands of tons of food and other vital supplies are waiting near crossing points into Gaza but until it can be safely distributed, around a quarter of the population remains at risk of famine, Renard said.

It is hoped that flour and other food aid will start reaching some of Gaza's most vulnerable people on Thursday, along with medical aid. The Palestinian health minister said that more than 90 percent of medical stocks in Gaza are at zero. 

UN officials said security issues had prevented the aid from moving out of the logistics hub at the Kerem Shalom crossing point but late on Wednesday there appeared some hope that supplies would move more freely.

Nahid Shahaiber, a major transport company owner, said 75 trucks of flour and over a dozen more carrying nutritional supplements and sugar were inside the southern area of Rafah and witnesses said trucks carrying flour had been seen in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

Mounting pressure on Israel

As people waited for supplies to arrive, air strikes and tank fire killed at least 50 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian health authorities said. The Israeli military said air strikes hit 115 targets, which it said included rocket launchers, tunnels and unspecified military infrastructure.

The resumption of the assault on Gaza has drawn condemnation from countries including Britain and Canada that have long been cautious about expressing open criticism of Israel. Even Israel's key ally the U.S. has shown signs of losing patience with Netanyahu.

Netanyahu said it was "a disgrace" that countries like Britain were sanctioning Israel instead of Hamas. But there has also been growing unease within Israel over the war.

Left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan, a former deputy commander of the Israeli military, declared this week that "A sane country doesn't kill babies as a hobby" and said Israel risked becoming a "pariah state among the nations."

Opinion polls show widespread support for a ceasefire that would include the return of all the hostages, with a survey from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem this week showing 70 percent in favor of a deal.

But hardliners in the cabinet, some of whom argue for the complete expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza, have insisted on continuing the war until "final victory", which would include disarming Hamas as well as the return of the hostages.

Netanyahu, trailing in the opinion polls and facing trial at home on corruption charges, which he denies, as well as an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, has so far sided with the hardliners.