Attack near Israeli embassy in Serbia

What happened

• Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, a man armed with two knives attacked a Serbian gendarmerie officer guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, according to Serbia's interior ministry.JNS.orgThe Times of IsraelMaarivIsrael National News
• The officer was lightly wounded in the face and shot the assailant dead in what Interior Minister Ivica Dacic described as self-defense.Maarivjpost.comynetIsrael Hayom
• Dacic said the attacker was an unidentified minor who shouted a religious cry during the assault, had been monitored by Serbian security services, and displayed an Islamic State flag on his Instagram account.The Times of IsraelJNS.orgMaarivjpost.com
• Serbia classified the incident as a terror attack, raised the national terror threat to its highest level and boosted police presence at key sites.JNS.orgThe Times of IsraelIsrael HayomChannel 14
• Israel's Foreign Ministry said the embassy was closed at the time of the night-time incident and no mission staff were hurt, adding that the matter is under investigation.Arutz ShevaIsrael National NewsJNS.org

Why it matters

It was the second attack on a guard outside Israel's Belgrade embassy in about two years, after a crossbow assault in June 2024, and it came days after Serbia's long-ruling president lost a parliamentary vote in a country that had become one of Israel's closest partners in Europe.The Times of IsraelIsrael HayomChannel 14

Where coverage differs

• Right-leaning Israeli outlets led mainly with the attack itself and the raised alert level, with Channel 14 and Israel Hayom adding context on Serbia's recent election and the earlier embassy attack, while the center outlets Times of Israel and ynet foregrounded the Serbian interior minister's account and, in ToI's case, the state of Israeli-Serbian relations.Channel 14Israel HayomThe Times of IsraelynetIsrael National News