An unidentified man slashed an Israeli flag displayed outside a home in Pittsburgh’s Mexican War Streets neighborhood on the evening of Jan. 17, JNS reported Wednesday, citing the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.
The incident has been classified as criminal mischief.
Police said the suspect, described as a white male with long hair and a mustache, arrived in a white pickup truck with its license plate covered in blue tape. Around 7:00 p.m., he parked near the home in question, approached the property with a knife, slashed the Israeli flag, and then fled the scene.
According to the city, this is the third time in two years that an Israeli flag has been damaged on the same block.
Last May, fliers denigrating Jews were strewn around the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill, and residents were targeted with antisemitic epithets.
Squirrel Hill is the same neighborhood where the Tree of Life Synagogue, targeted in a terror attack in 2018, is located.
In October of 2024, a Jewish student at the University of Pittsburgh was assaulted off campus by a group of six to eight men who used antisemitic and anti-Israel language during the attack.