MIDEAST-PALESTINIANS/ISRAEL-ATTACK Four dead in suspected Palestinian attack on Jerusalem synagogue

Record ID: 355053

  • Title: MIDEAST-PALESTINIANS/ISRAEL-ATTACK Four dead in suspected Palestinian attack on Jerusalem synagogue
  • Date: 18th November 2014
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (NOVEMBER 18, 2014) (REUTERS) (MUTE) VARIOUS OF AMBULANCES ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF WOUNDED BEING WHEELED INTO HOSPITAL AMBULANCE DRIVING AWAY AMBULANCE ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF MEDICAL STAFF OUTSIDE HOSPITAL EQUIPMENT BEING WHEELED INTO HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 3rd December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA908ZYH7EAE7X7U6LA7332UV4G
  • Story Text: Two suspected Palestinian men armed with axes and knives killed four people in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday (November 18) before being shot dead by police, Israeli police and emergency services said, the deadliest such attack in the city in years.
    The attack took place shortly after dawn in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of West Jerusalem. Pictures posted by an Israeli army spokesman on the Internet showed a man in a Jewish prayer shawl lying dead, a bloodied butcher's cleaver discarded on the floor and overturned prayer tables.
    Israel's ambulance service said at least eight people were seriously wounded.
    Police said at least one of the assailants was from East Jerusalem, the predominantly Palestinian side of the city.
    In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the attack on both Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who he accused of urging Palestinians towards violence.
    Palestinian radio reports described the attackers as "martyrs" and the Islamist group Hamas praised the attack. Loudspeakers at mosques in Gaza called out congratulations.
    Violence in Jerusalem, areas of Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories has surged in the past month, fuelled by a dispute over Jerusalem's holiest shrine, which has given rise to fears of a religious conflict.
    Five Israelis and a foreign visitor have been deliberately run over and killed or stabbed to death by Palestinians. About a dozen Palestinians have also been killed, including those accused of carrying out those attacks.
    On Monday a Palestinian bus driver was found hanged in a vehicle in Jerusalem. Israeli police, citing autopsy results, said he had committed suicide but the driver's family said they suspected foul play and the incident led to clashes.
    Hamas called for retaliation after the bus driver's death.
    Residents trace the violence in Jerusalem to July, when a Palestinian teenager was burned to death by Jewish assailants, an alleged revenge attack for the abduction and killing of three Jewish teens by Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank.
    The summer war in Gaza and a row over access to a Jerusalem compound that is sacred to Muslims and Jews alike have also been triggers for violence.
    The synagogue attack was the worst in the city since 2008, when a Palestinian gunman shot dead eight people in a religious seminary school in the city.
    Media reports said one of the synagogue attackers was armed with a gun and a hospital spokesman said two people were being treated for gunshot wounds, but police did not immediately confirm that either of the attackers fired a gun.
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