At least four Israelis have been killed and eight injured as two men armed with a pistol, knives and axes attacked a West Jerusalem synagogue, police say. There have been several deadly attacks and clashes in Jerusalem recently amid tension over a disputed holy site.


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to respond "with a heavy hand" to the attack - the deadliest in Jerusalem in six years.

He 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.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld: "There was a gun battle... both the terrorists were shot and confirmed dead at the scene"
Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, praised the attack. Israel has designated both groups as terrorist organisations.

Visiting London, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the act of "pure terror... simply has no place in human behaviour". His UK host Philip Hammond condemned "the appalling attack".

Jerusalem has been a place of division fiercely contested by rival religious traditions for many hundreds of years.

In the last few weeks tensions have risen sharply - largely as the result of the revival of an ancient dispute over rights of worship at a site within the walls of the Old City.

Muslims call the site al-Haram al-Sharif and believe it is the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended into heaven - to Jews it is Temple Mount and marks the place where the sacred temples of their faith stood in ancient times.

By a long-standing tradition, Muslims alone have the right to pray at the site although people of other faiths may visit.

The issue is of such sensitivity that even when Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem during the war of 1967 it handed control of the compound back to an Islamic religious authority which continues to administer it to this day.


In recent times some religious Jews have begun to argue for a change in the status quo which would also allow them to pray there - any hint of such change is viewed with deep anger in the Islamic world.

The attack happened at a religious seminary site on Harav Shimon Agassi Street - home to a largely Orthodox Jewish community in the Har Nof neighbourhood. Among those killed was Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 60, head of the seminary.

Police say there was a shoot-out with the attackers, said to be cousins, when officers reached the scene.

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.

Praising 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.

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.

Praising 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.

http://www.gospelhotspot.net/2014/11/four-killed-in-jerusalem-synagogue.html

world people sha

people should learn how to call a spade a spade. The honest truth is that The State of Israel is being so Wicked towards the Palestinians; lest they forget that they are strangers in the land of Canaan.

People should stop taking sides in issues like this one and learn how say things as they happen.

A good person is a good judge. you are a good judge.

CHIOMAIGBO:
people should learn how to call a spade a spade. The honest truth is that The State of Israel is being so Wicked towards the Palestinians; lest they forget that they are strangers in the land of Canaan.

People should stop taking sides in issues like this one and learn how say things as they happen.

O ma se. So at this critical time hevean will be force to cough out 288(27 x 4) virgins when their is scacity of virgins in hevean