Four Israelis have been killed and eight injured as two men armed with a pistol and meat cleavers attacked a West Jerusalem synagogue, police say.
The attackers - Palestinians from East Jerusalem - were shot dead.
There have recently been several deadly attacks and clashes in Jerusalem, which has also seen heightened tension over a disputed holy site.
Israel has vowed to respond "with a heavy hand" to the attack - the deadliest in Jerusalem in six years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed "incitement" by Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and said the international community had ignored their actions.
Hamas and Mr Abbas's Fatah party - rival Palestinian factions - agreed to form a unity government earlier this year, a move denounced at the time by Israel.
Mr Abbas's office issued a statement saying: "The presidency condemns the attack on Jewish worshippers in their place of prayer and condemns the killing of civilians no matter who is doing it."
The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, says it carried out the synagogue attack.
Militants from the far-left-wing Palestinian nationalist group have been behind many previous attacks on Israelis.
Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, praised the attack. Israel has designated both groups as terrorist organisations.
Pictures posted online by an Israeli military spokesman show a bloodied meat cleaver, bodies lying between desks and chairs on a blood-stained floor, their faces covered with their prayer shawls.
"I tried to escape. The man with the knife approached me. There was a chair and table between us... my prayer shawl got caught. I left it there and escaped," one of the Israelis told Channel 2 television.
Palestinians have identified the attackers as Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal. In the Gaza Strip, some people distributed sweets to celebrate the attack.
Hamas said it was in revenge for the death of a Palestinian bus driver found hanged inside a vehicle in Jerusalem on Monday.
Israeli police said it was a case of suicide, but his family did not accept the post-mortem findings.
No comments:
Post a Comment