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Palestinian attackers kill 5 at Jerusalem synagogue, including 3 Americans Palestinian attackers kill 5 at Jerusalem synagogue, including 3 Americans
(about 5 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Two Palestinians armed with knives, axes and a gun stormed a synagogue in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood on Tuesday, killing three Americans — including a prominent rabbi — as well as a British worshiper and an Israeli police officer in one of the deadliest attacks in years in Jerusalem. JERUSALEM — The gruesome slaying of five Israelis at a synagogue early Tuesday left many residents of this city fearing that the worst is still to come, as Jerusalem descends deeper into a cycle of terror attacks and violent protest over its religious sites.
The attackers were then killed by police in an aftermath that vividly showed the razor-edge tensions in Jerusalem after weeks of bloodshed and clashes over issues including a contested religious site. Many Israelis were especially stunned by the sense of violation created by the attack, in which two Palestinians armed with cleavers and a gun stormed a synagogue in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of West Jerusalem and killed four rabbis: a Briton and three Americans, including a member of two of Orthodox Judaism’s most prominent families.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Palestinian leaders of inciting violence and lauding attackers as “cultural heroes.” Late Tuesday, an Israeli police officer who rushed to the scene died of wounds suffered in the attack, and Israeli forces threatened to begin demolishing the family homes of Palestinians who have attacked Israelis. The Palestinian assailants, cousins from majority-Arab East Jerusalem, were killed at the scene by police.
He also took a step certain to stir more Palestinian outrage: ordering the destruction of homes in mostly Arab East Jerusalem of those linked to “terrorist” attacks over the past weeks. The home-razing tactic was common a decade ago, but rarely used in recent years. Photographs of the attack’s aftermath, released by the Israeli government, showed prayer shawls, an open prayer book, as well as the arm of one of the four rabbis, bound in tefillin, lying in pools of blood.
In the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip, meanwhile, calls over loudspeakers praised the attackers, and crowds in East Jerusalem pelted Israeli security forces with rocks as they fanned out around the neighborhood of the assailants. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night accused Palestinian leaders of inciting the violence and committing “blood libel” by suggesting that Jews were responsible for the death this week of a Palestinian bus driver who Israeli police say committed suicide by hanging.
“This is a battle over Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said in a nationally televised address hours after the attack, insisting that Israel would never give up their claims to the city. Tuesday evening, Netanyahu ordered the destruction of the East Jerusalem homes of those linked to recent attacks. Seven Israelis have been killed in recent weeks as Palestinians rammed a car into passengers awaiting a Jerusalem Light Rail train and slashed people with knives at a bus stop in the West Bank and at a train station in Tel Aviv.
Authorities said those killed included one Briton and three Americans — among them Rabbi Mosheh Twersky, who taught at an English-speaking religious school in Jerusalem and was a member of one of the most respected families in Orthodox scholarship. The home-razing tactic was common a decade ago, but Israel has rarely used it in recent years. Netanyahu said Tuesday the demolitions are an effective deterrent against further attacks.
The State Department identified the other Americans as Aryeh Kupinsky and Cary William Levine, but gave no other immediate details. Israeli authorities identified the British man as Avraham Goldberg. “This is a battle over Jerusalem,’’ he said in a nationally televised address, insisting that Israelis would never give up their claims to the contested city. Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which is annexed and occupied by Israel, to be the capital of any future Palestinian state.
An Israeli police spokesman later said that a 30-year-old police officer, Zidan Saif, died Tuesday evening in the hospital of wounds he sustained in the attack. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Tuesday’s slayings and said such attacks “violate all religious principles and do not serve the common interest we are trying to promote – establishing a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.”
Some media outlets, including the Jerusalem Post, described the four visitors who were killed as rabbis, and the Associated Press reported that each had dual Israeli citizenship. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Yoram Cohen, the chief of the Israeli domestic security agency Shin Bet, as saying Abbas has not been inciting terror attacks.
Twersky’s grandfather, Joseph Soloveitchik, was a renowned Boston rabbi, and his father, Rabbi Yitzhak (Isadore) Twersky, was longtime director of The Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard. That could not be said of the Islamist Palestinian militant movement Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip. Its spokesman, Sami Abu Zahri, praised what he called “the Jerusalem operation” and called for a “continuation of the revenge operations.”
Twersky’s brother, Mayer Twersky, is one of the overseers of Yeshiva University in New York, the flagship American school for Jewish Orthodox studies. Hamas did not claim responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, but loudspeakers in Gaza praised the Palestinians who carried it out. Zahri said it was a response to the “execution” of the Palestinian bus driver, Yusuf Hasan al-Ramuni, who was found hanging in his bus Monday. An Israeli autopsy concluded that his death was a suicide.
The synagogue is located in a neighborhood, Har Nof, popular with Americans and others undertaking studies in Judaism. But Palestinians refer to the area by its former name, Deir Yassin, an Arab village they say was attacked by Jewish paramilitary units in April 1948 shortly before Israeli statehood. Palestinians say scores of civilians were killed, but Israel denies such accounts. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, another militant organization, claimed responsibility for the synagogue attack. But police said they were still investigating the claim and relatives of the Palestinian assailants said the cousins were not members of any Palestinian faction.
“Today’s vicious terrorist attack . . . represents a barbaric new low in the sad and outrageous history of such attacks,’’ said a statement from the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro. The attack took place in the quiet West Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof, popular with Americans and others undertaking studies in Judaism. Among the dead was Mosheh Twersky, dean of an English-speaking religious school in Jerusalem and a member of one of the most respected families in Orthodox Jewish scholarship.
Video released by the Israeli government showed prayer books and shawls splattered with blood. The State Department identified the other slain Americans as Aryeh Kupinsky and Kalman Levine (who was also known as Cary William Levine). Israeli authorities identified the British victim as Avraham Goldberg. All had dual Israeli citizenship.
“What I saw was horrifying,” said Avi Nefoussi, a paramedic who was among the first to enter the synagogue minutes after the two attackers were shot dead by police. “I saw several bodies lying on the floor — some were people that I knew — and two people badly injured from gunshots.” Ya’akov Amos, who was inside the synagogue at the time of the attack, described the scene as one of carnage and shock.
The early morning attack harkened back to the years of the Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, and appeared certain to inflame a city already buffeted by tensions. “I was praying quietly when all of a sudden I heard gunshots from outside in the hallway, and then suddenly one of the terrorists came right past me shouting, ‘Allahu Akhbar!’ I heard the shots — one, two, three — and was just praying to God that he would save us,” Amos said.
Many Palestinians were deeply angered by Israel’s decision last month to temporarily block access to the al-Aqsa mosque in an area known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, a holy site to both religions. Israel police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said five other people were wounded in the attack, including the police officer who later died.
The Israeli measures — which are now lifted — came after a Palestinian gunman attempted to kill an Israeli-American activist who wants Jews to be allowed to pray at the site. Jews and Christians are normally allowed to visit the area as tourists. But they are banned from praying, singing and making religious displays. “What I saw was horrifying,” said Avi Nefoussi, a paramedic who was among the first to enter the synagogue after the attackers were killed. “I saw several bodies lying on the floor — some were people that I knew — and two people badly injured from gunshots.”
Weeks of unrest has followed. Any fresh crackdowns in East Jerusalem — such as the home destructions — could touch off more street battles in the area. Mirit Sandori, a Har Nof resident who works at a supermarket, said she was shocked but not surprised.
Mourners in East Jerusalem gathered around the family of the synagogue attackers, who were identified by Palestinian media as cousins Udai and Ghassan Abu Jamal. Israeli media said that one of the two men worked in a supermarket near the synagogue. “We have no security in this neighborhood, and the situation has been tense in Jerusalem for a long time,” said Sandori, who said she works with Palestinians from East Jerusalem in the supermarket. “Lately, they have been looking at us with cold eyes, eyes of hate.”
“We are against the killing of innocent people on both sides, but al-Aqsa mosque is a red line that should not be crossed,” said Ala Abu Jamal, a cousin of the attackers. “It will make anyone ready to sacrifice their lives, regardless of the price.” President Obama condemed the attack and called on all sides to lower tensions.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian Islamist group that fought a war against Israel this past summer in the Gaza Strip, praised the attack but stopped short of claiming responsibility for the bloodshed — the worst at a religious site in Israel since eight people were killed in 2008 when Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a Jerusalem yeshiva, or Jewish religious school. “Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue,” U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry said shortly after the attack, his voice quavering. He said the victims “were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror.”
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said five people were also wounded in the attack, including a police officer who responded to the scene along with the fellow officer who later died. Kerry also echoed Netanyahu by referring to the killings as “a pure result of incitement.”
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri, in a Twitter message, called it “revenge” for Israeli controls over al-Aqsa access and an incident Monday of a Palestinian bus driver found hanged in his vehicle, according to SITE monitoring service, which follows militant groups. The attack was reminiscent of the Palestinian intifadas, or uprisings, of past years and appeared likely to inflame a city strained by tensions.
Israeli police said the bus driver’s death was a suicide, citing autopsy results. Many Palestinians suspect foul play. Many Palestinians were deeply angered by Israel’s decision last month to suspend access to the Al-Aqsa mosque in an area known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, a holy site to both religions.
In London, Secretary of State John F. Kerry condemned the attacks and demanded that the Palestinian leadership take immediate steps to end incitement to violence among Palestinians. The Israeli measures — which are now lifted — came after a Palestinian gunman tried to kill an Israeli-American activist who wants Jews to be allowed to pray at the site. Jews and Christians are normally allowed to visit the area as tourists. But they are banned from praying, singing and making religious displays.
“Innocent people who had come to worship died in the sanctuary of a synagogue,” Kerry said, his voice quavering. “They were hatcheted, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder,” he said after speaking by phone with Netanyahu. Weeks of unrest have followed. Any fresh crackdowns in East Jerusalem — such as home demolitions — could touch off more street battles in the area.
Netanyahu, Kerry and Jordan’s King Abdullah II met last week in Jordan’s capital in a bid to ease tensions. In Jabel Mukaber, where the two Palestinian assailants lived, concrete barricades, smoldering tires and rocks lay strewn along the main road, evidence of clashes between residents and Israeli police early Tuesday.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also denounced the synagogue slayings. Mourners gathered around the family of the attackers, one of whom worked in a supermarket near the synagogue, according to Israeli news reports.
At a Vatican conference, Lord Sacks, Britain’s former chief rabbi, offered a prayer for the victims of the synagogue slayings. “We are against the killing of innocent people on both sides, but Al-Aqsa mosque is a red line that should not be crossed,” said Ala Abu Jamal, a cousin of the attackers. “It will make anyone ready to sacrifice their lives, regardless of the price.”
“To attack and murder while someone is immersed in silent prayer – the horror! We pray for the victims and the wounded. We condemn the terrorists and any of those who support them. We are one with our brothers and sisters in the land of Israel,” Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, an Orthodox rabbi in Washington who studied under another member of Twersky’s family, posted early Tuesday on his Facebook page. Sufian Taha in Jerusalem, Daniela Deane in London, and Brian Murphy, Michelle Boorstein, Debbi Wilgoren and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.
Religious sites have been caught before in the Arab-Israel conflict.
In March 2002, at the height of the second intifada, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up at a Passover meal at a hotel in Netanya, Israel. Thirty civilians were killed.
In February 1994, an American-born Israeli, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire on unarmed Palestinian Muslims praying inside the Ibrahimi Mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Goldstein, who was a member of the far-right Israeli Kach movement, killed 29 worshipers and wounded more than 100. He was overpowered and beaten to death by survivors at the mosque.
Deane reported from London and Murphy reported from Washington. Sufian Taha in Jerusalem, Michelle Boorstein, Debbi Wilgoren and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.