Serbian Gendarme Fatally Shoots Knife-Wielding Minor Outside Israeli Embassy in Belgrade

A Serbian Gendarmerie officer guarding the Israeli embassy in Belgrade shot and killed a knife-wielding attacker shortly after midnight on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Serbian authorities said. Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said the attacker, a minor of so far undetermined identity who is reasonably suspected to be from the western city of Sabac, rushed at the officer with two knives while shouting "Allahu Akbar." The officer was lightly wounded in the face. The Belgrade Higher Public Prosecution Office said a black-clad person opened the door of the guard house around 12:15 a.m., threw one knife that hit the officer, identified only as D.S., in the left cheek, and was then shot several times and died on the spot. Prosecutors qualified the shooting as justified and in self-defense, and the investigation is continuing. Dacic said authorities are treating the incident as a terrorist attack, that the attacker appeared to support the Islamic State, and that he had raised Serbia's security threat level to red. Israel's foreign ministry called it an attempted terrorist attack and said no embassy personnel were hurt, as the mission was closed at the time.

The New York Times, on the left, leads with the shooting of the attacker and the government's view that the minor appeared to be an Islamic State supporter, noting that authorities call it a terrorist attack. Its excerpt gives few other details. Fox News, on the right, puts the "Allahu Akbar" shout in its headline and adds that security forces had been monitoring the attacker, who displayed a black flag with the group's symbol on Instagram. It also quotes Israel's foreign ministry and the prosecutors' timeline. Both sides agree on the terrorism label, the attacker's age and the Islamic State link. The Hindu, an alternative outlet, differs mainly by giving the prosecutors' detailed account and their self-defense ruling.