Two assailants attacked a synagogue visitors with knives and axes: in an attack in Jerusalem four people died and others were injured. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu announces sharp reactions.

In an attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem were killed at least four people and several injured. Israeli media reported two alleged attackers had attacked Arab Praying with knives and axes. Summoned police had killed the suspects after a brief firefight. The injured were taken to hospitals. The attack occurred in the district of Har Nof.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced sharp reactions. The attack was a “cruel murder of Jews.” You would want to pray and were killing of “despicable murderers”. Netanyahu described the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the instigator of violence.
“The president condemns the attack on Jewish worshipers during prayer,” Reuters quoted a statement from Abbas’ office. Generally Abbas condemned the killing of civilians, “no matter who commits the act.”

Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “deeply shocked”: “The fact that churches are the scene of deadly attacks on innocent believers is a terrible transgression in an already extremely tense situation,” he told  “Our sympathy is with the families of the victims.”

Steinmeier myself have felt a few days ago in Jerusalem, “as the charged atmosphere there is.” The superposition of many unresolved issues with religious confrontation give an already serious conflict a dangerous new dimension.

US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the attack as “sheer terror” that he was not human behavior.

Israel Knife Attack in Synagogue: Police speaks of “terrorist attack”

About the number of victims, there is only preliminary information: The police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspects were killed. However, he did not say how they died. Palestinian media reported that the perpetrators were cousins. The 22- and 27-year-olds would come from the Jabal al-Mukaber neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Another police spokeswoman Luba Samri, said four visitors of worship had been killed. She spoke of a “terrorist attack”.

The Israeli police assume that there is a stop of individual perpetrators, citing the news agency dpa. The men were therefore not commissioned by a terrorist organization. Numerous Israeli security forces were in the area of their houses in East Jerusalem in use.

“I tried to escape,” an eyewitness told the Israeli Yossi TV channel “Channel 2 TV,” he did not give his last name. “The man with the knife came up to me. A chair and a table was between us.” But the eyewitness was able to escape.

Paramedics report directly after the fact, nine people were treated at the site of the attack. Five were in critical condition.

Israel Knife Attack in Synagogue: Hamas spokesman praises the attack

For weeks, the situation in Jerusalem not worry: There are repeated confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. There was also a series of attacks on Israelis. A trigger of tension was the dispute over the use of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Jews and Muslims is sacred.

The radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas responded to the deadly attack and described him as a “heroic act”. If it were a “natural reaction,” said Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri in Gaza. It was revenge for the death of an Arab bus driver.

After the incident had occurred on Monday to unrest in the city. The police suspect a suicide, but the man’s family suspects a murder by Jewish extremists. Hamas spokesman called the death of the bus driver an “execution”.

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