Jerusalem Synagogue
Members of the Israeli Zaka emergency response team clean blood from the scene of an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue.
Four Israelis have been killed at a Jerusalem synagogue attack and several others have been injured in what police say was a “terrorist attack”.
 
Three of the victims held dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship and the fourth man was a British-Israeli national, police said.
According to the security officials, the attack was carried out by two armed men but the police was able to kill them inside the church.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has pledged to respond with a “heavy hand”, and again accused Western-backed Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, of inciting violence in Jerusalem.
Abbas condemned the attack, which comes after weeks of unrest fuelled in part by a dispute over Jerusalem’s holiest shrine.
A worshipper at the service in the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of West Jerusalem said that about 25 people were praying when shooting broke out.
“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,” the witness, Yosef Posternak, told Israel Radio.
The area has been sealed off and those injured are being treated in a Jerusalem hospital.
The city of Jerusalem has experienced several attack in recent weeks, with two deadly attacks by Palestinian militants on pedestrians in the city.