Addis Ababa – The Embassy of the State of Israel firmly denounces the Palestinian terrorists’ brutal massacre this morning inside a synagogue in Jerusalem.
Two Palestinians, armed with a pistol and axes, entered the Kehillat Bnei Zion synagogue and yeshiva in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood in Jerusalem and began attacking worshipers, stabbing them before opening fire. The worshipers were in the midst of the morning prayers, wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries. Police confirmed that four people were killed in the terror attack and eight wounded – four of them seriously.
Police who arrived at the scene shortly after the attack began shot and killed the two terrorists.
PM Netanyahu at a security consultation this afternoon said: "This is the direct result of the incitement being led by Hamas and Abu Mazen, incitement which the international community is irresponsibly ignoring. We will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were met by reprehensible murderers."
Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman said that the terrorist attack in a synagogue during prayers this morning amply demonstrates the baseness of the murderers, and that the responsibility rests entirely with the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas has deliberately turned the conflict into a religious conflict between Jews and Muslims and the systematic incitement he leads against Jews, including his statement that impure Jews may not enter the Temple Mount, provides the guidance for such heinous attacks.
The international community should condemn Abbas’ anti-Semitic statements, which lead to terrible massacres as happened this morning in the synagogue in Jerusalem, and make it clear that those who act in this way cannot be seen as legitimate political figures.