JERUSALEM–Tuesday morning saw Israel’s bloodiest terrorist attack in the past three years, the highest level of casualties in the capital city since 2008, with the killing of four and injuring of six by terrorists in the Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood. The perpetrators, two cousins from East Jerusalem who were later claimed as members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, entered the Kehilat Yaakov synagogue at 7:00 in the morning. Armed with a meat cleaver and gun, and screaming “Allahu Akbar,” they proceeded to attack the worshippers.
As the massacre unfolded, many tried to escape. The terrorists shot those who could not at point-blank and dismembered the corpses, leaving the clear impression that this was a targeted religious attack. The terrorists, caught and killed by police less than eight minutes later, left behind four casualties and a bloody synagogue, described by Eli Pollak, a United Hatzalah volunteer, as “one of the cruelest scenes I have ever witnessed.”
Later Tuesday, funerals were swiftly held for the four rabbis who were murdered, in keeping with the Jewish custom of burying their dead before sunset in Israel. They were Rabbi Avraham Goldberg, Rabbi Kalman Ze’ev Levine, Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, and Rabbi Moshe Twersky, who was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Torat Moshe and a grandson of the Modern Orthodox leader, Rabbi Yosef B. Solovetchik. All four were laid to rest in Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery, following an emotional procession attended by thousands of Israelis who paid their final respects to four innocent men. All of them held dual citizenship–three were Americans and one was a Briton.
Israeli and world leaders immediately lashed out at the responsible party, with Prime Minister Netanyahu putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of Palestinian President Abbas: “This is the direct result of the incitement led by Hamas and Abu Mazen [Abbas], incitement that the international community irresponsibly ignores,” Netanyahu said, “We will respond with a strong hand to the cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were caught by dark murderous hands.”
Abbas, in return, condemned the attack while blaming it on incitement by Israeli activists and MKs. US Secretary of State John Kerry, personally called the Israeli PM with his condolences, calling the attack “an act of pure terror and senseless brutality.”
The impetus for this latest in a series of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and other ciries, is attributed to the discovery of a Muslim Egged bus driver, who was found hanged to death in a bus at the depot in Jerusalem. It was deemed a suicide, but a Palestinian pathologist claimed that the driver was beaten before he was hanged, adding fodder to smoldering Israeli/Palestinian tensions.
By Tzvi Silver, JLBC Israel Correspondent
