3 American rabbis among 5 dead in Jerusalem attack

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "respond harshly" after five people — three of them U.S.-born rabbis — were killed in a synagogue Tuesday by two Palestinians wielding meat cleavers, an ax and a gun.

The incident was the latest violent event in the tense city where relations between Arabs and Jews have been deteriorating for weeks over a contested shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims.

Netanyahu immediately ordered the demolition of the attackers' homes, as well as homes of Palestinians who carried out several recent attacks.

Four of the dead were rabbis and one was a police officer who died of his wounds hours after the attack. Three of the rabbis were born in the United States, and the fourth was born in England, although all held dual Israeli citizenship.

The U.S.-born victims were identified as Moshe Twersky, 59, Aryeh Kupinsky, 43, and Kalman Levine, 55. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the British man was Avraham Goldberg, 68, who immigrated to Israel in 1993.

Twersky, the grandson of a renowned rabbi from Boston, Joseph Soloveitchik, was the head of Yeshivas Toras Moshe, a religious seminary for English-speaking students. His father, Isadore Twersky, founded the Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard.

Thousands of people attended a joint funeral for Kupinsky, Levine and Goldberg before sundown — held outside the synagogue where the attack occurred during morning prayers. Earlier, blood was streaked across the floors and on prayer books and shawls there.

The attack took place in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof, which has a large population of English-speaking immigrants. The attackers were shot and killed by police after a shootout. Police were searching the area for other suspects.

Police identified the attackers as Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, cousins from East Jerusalem.

In Washington, President Obama condemned the killings. "There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians," he said. "The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the victims and families of all those who were killed and injured in this horrific attack and in other recent violence."

Obama added that the incident makes it "all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence and seek a path forward towards peace."

Yosef Posternak, who was at the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israel Radio that about 25 worshipers were inside when the attackers entered.

"I saw people lying on the floor, blood everywhere. People were trying to fight with (the attackers) but they didn't have much of a chance," he said.

The government announced measures to ratchet up the city's already heightened security. Schools and other educational institutions were ordered to ramp up their security. Most schools already have an armed guard stationed at their entrance because of earlier attacks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also condemned the attack, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis began. He called for an end to Israeli "provocations" surrounding the sacred site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Abbas said it was wrong for either side to kill civilians.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas, wrote in a post on Facebook that the incident in Jerusalem was a reaction to Israeli "crimes" and called for further attacks and bloodshed.

Netanyahu, in a nationally televised address, accused Abbas of inciting the recent violence and said the Palestinian leader's condemnation of the attack was insufficient. He earlier said the international community "irresponsibly ignores" Arab attacks on Jews around the world.

"The cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were caught by dark, murderous hands" would not go unpunished, the prime minister said.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who is on his way to Vienna for nuclear negotiations with Iran, said Tuesday's attack was an "act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence."

The violence comes amid a wave of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis that killed at least six people in recent weeks.

On Monday, a Palestinian bus driver was found hanged in his vehicle. Israeli police said the death was a suicide, citing autopsy results. Palestinians suspect foul play, which has led to protests.

The latest cycle of violence began in June after the murder of three Israeli teens and a Palestinian teen erupted into a war over the summer between Israel and Hamas that led to the deaths of over 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 72 Israelis, according to the United Nations.

Contributing: The Associated Press