Four people were killed in a terror attack at a synagogue in a Jerusalem neighborhood Tuesday morning.
Police said two attackers, apparently from East Jerusalem, came into the synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood shortly after 7 a.m. and began attacking worshipers at morning prayers with a gun, a meat cleaver, and an ax.
Both terrorists were killed by police.
Israel Police said there were six injured, including two policemen.
The attack occurred at the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue, located in a religious institution which includes a study hall. One of the worshipers said the two terrorists shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack, and entered the synagogue without their faces covered. Photos taken from inside the synagogue after the attack showed bloodied male worshipers lying on the floor, still wrapped in their prayer shawls and phylacteries.
A video shot by a bystander shows police engaged in a shootout with the attackers.
Both attackers were from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, Channel 2 reported. Security forces were in the neighborhood.
According to Israel Radio’s Gal Berger, Palestinian sources said the attackers were cousins, named Said Abu Jamal and Uday Warsan. He also reported that Hamas officials in Gaza and Qatar said the attack was “revenge for the killing of Arab bus driver in Jerusalem.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon called an emergency meeting in the wake of the attack.
The ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood where the attack occured sits at the Western edge of Jerusalem and has been mostly shielded from the violence that has wracked the city in recent weeks.
The attack comes a day after tensions in Jerusalem once again ramped up in the wake of the apparent suicide of an Arab bus driver Sunday night. The driver’s family claimed he had been killed by Jewish extremists, setting off riots and strikes in the capital Monday.
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