Four Israelis killed in Jerusalem synagogue attack

Israeli Zaka emergency services volunteers carry the body of one of the two Palestinian assailants who were shot dead while attacking a synagogue in the Har Nof neighbourhood in Jerusalem on Nov 18, 2014. (Photo: AFP/GALI TIBBON)

JERUSALEM: Two Palestinians armed with a gun and axes attacked a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday (Nov 18), killing four Israelis, police said.

It was the deadliest attack in Jerusalem in years and comes after months of unrest in the annexed eastern sector of the city. "There are four dead and six injured, among them two policemen," police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.

The attack began shortly before 7am (1pm, Singapore time) as worshippers were attending morning prayers at a synagogue in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighbourhood on the western outskirts of the city.

The two assailants, who were identified by police as Palestinians from east Jerusalem, were shot dead. "Two terrorists, apparently from east Jerusalem, entered a yeshiva (Jewish seminary) in Har Nof and attacked worshippers with axes and a pistol," the spokeswoman said. "The two terrorists were neutralised," she added, using a police euphemism for killed.

A witness, identified only as Zohar, said there was panic at the scene. "I heard shooting and one of the worshippers came out covered in blood and shouted 'There's a massacre'," he told the radio.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad hailed the attack, saying it was in reaction to the death of a Palestinian bus driver. In a statement, the Islamist Hamas movement, which dominates Gaza, said it was "a response to the murder of the martyr Yusuf Ramuni." It was referring to the bus driver from east Jerusalem, who was found hanged inside his vehicle late on Sunday in an incident Israeli police described as suicide but which a colleague said looked like murder.