Two Palestinians armed with a gun and a meat cleaver killed four people in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday before being gunned down by police. Israel's ambulance service said at least eight people were seriously injured.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to respond with a "heavy hand", and again accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of inciting violence in Jerusalem. Abbas issued a statement condemning the attack.
A worshipper who attended the morning service in the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of West Jerusalem said about 25 people were praying when shooting broke out. He said, "I looked up and saw someone shooting people at point-blank range. Then someone came in with what looked like a butcher's knife and he went wild."
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. |