Telegraph: Two suspected Palestinian men armed with axes, knives and a pistol killed four people in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday before being shot dead by police, Israeli police and emergency services said, the deadliest such attack in the city in years.
The attack took place shortly after 7am in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of West Jerusalem. Pictures posted by an Israeli army spokesman on the Internet showed a man in a Jewish prayer shawl lying dead, a bloodied butcher’s cleaver discarded on the floor and overturned prayer tables.
“We are viewing this as a terrorist attack,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. Israel’s ambulance service said at least eight people were seriously wounded.
Two policemen were among the wounded and one of them is in a critical condition, according to police.
Police said at least one of the assailants was from East Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian side of the city.
Palestinian radio reports described the attackers as “martyrs” and the Islamist group Hamas praised the attack. Loudspeakers at mosques in Gaza called out congratulations.
“Hamas calls for the continuation of revenge operations and stresses that the Israeli occupation bears responsibility for tension in Jerusalem,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the attack on both Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who he accused of urging Palestinians towards violence.
“This is a direct result of incitement led by Hamas and Abu Mazen, incitement that the international community has been irresponsibly ignoring,” he said in a statement.
“We will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by lowly murderers.”
Violence in Jerusalem, areas of Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories has surged in the past month, fuelled by a dispute over Jerusalem’s holiest shrine, which has given rise to fears of a religious conflict.
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