Two Palestinian cousins armed with a gun and meat cleavers stormed a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers on Tuesday, killing at least four people in the city’s bloodiest attack in years. Police have however killed the attackers in a shootout. Read more on Huff’ Post:
The attack ratcheted up fears of sustained violence in the city, which is already on edge amid soaring tensions over its most contested holy site.
Police said the dead worshippers were three Americans and a Briton, and they all held dual Israeli citizenship. The attack occurred in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood that has a large population of English-speaking immigrants.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “respond harshly,” describing the attack as a “cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke to Netanyahu after the assault and denounced it as an “act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis. He also called for an end to Israeli “provocations” surrounding a sacred shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims.
