The Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue on Shimon Agassi Street in the west Jerusalem neighbourhood of Har Nof is tucked away at the bottom of a steep bank beneath a large religious seminary. A peaceful neighbourhood, according to its residents, it was the last place they anticipated a rampage of murderous violence.
On Tuesday at about 7am, when 25 worshippers from the ultra-orthodox neighbourhood were in the building for the minyan morning prayer, two Palestinian cousins from the east Jerusalem village of Jabal Mukaber burst in, one of them shouting “God is great”.
In the space of seven short minutes, Ghassan Abu Jamal and Uday Abu Jamal, armed with meat cleavers and at least one gun, hacked away and shot a dozen of those praying, leaving four rabbis dead and eight people injured, before being shot themselves by police in a short exchange of fire near the synagogue's entrance.
The dead included three with joint US citizenship – Aryeh Kupinsky, Kalman Ze'ev Levine and Moshe Twersky – and a fourth with dual British citizenship, Avraham Shmuel Goldberg.
The frenzied attack, greeted with horror and international condemnation, marked a new and dangerous escalation in Jerusalem’s tensions, underlining how religion as much as nationalism has become one of its defining characters.
And while the lethal violence in the city in the last few weeks has occurred close to the dividing line between the occupied Palestinian east and mainly Jewish west, this attack in the heart of an orthodox and deeply observant neighbourhood represented a clear departure.
As residents and students of the local yeshivas gathered by the police lines that closed off the area around the synagogue, reactions were split between mourning and anger. While one group recited the Psalms, another chanted: “Death to terrorists.”
Witness horror
Among the crowd milling close to the entrance of the synagogue was Akiva Pollack, a paramedic who was one of the first on the scene, who told the Guardian that upon entering the building he had been confronted immediately by an individual covered in blood.
He told his story in animated and confused snatches. “He said he had been shot but when he took his shirt of it was covered in deep cuts. I tried to treat him, but then I heard shooting nearby.”
Pollack said he dragged one of the injured from the synagogue, and when he reached the exit he saw a policeman who had been shot and seriously wounded in the head. “I tried to help him. I intubated him but he was badly injured.”
Others described seeing victims carried out with deep wounds to their faces, suggesting they had been attacked with the knives. Other victims appeared to have been shot at close range.
Local resident Sarah Abrahams said: "I was going for a morning walk and passing by on the road above the synagogue. The police were already there, and when one of the terrorists emerged from the synagogue they shot him on the steps … Two people came out with their faces half missing, looking like they'd been attacked with knives."
Those who were inside the synagogue and survived the attack told chilling stories of horror and close escapes. A man who identified himself only as Yossi told Israel’s Channel 2 television: “The police arrived and surrounded the entrance and then the terrorist ran out and they shot him. There was wild gunfire. People ran out of the synagogue. It was hell.
“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.”
Yosef Posternak, who was also praying in the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israel Radio: "I looked up and saw someone shooting people at point-blank range. Then someone came in with what looked like a butcher's knife and he went wild.
“I saw people lying on the floor, blood everywhere. People were trying to fight with them but they didn’t have much of a chance.”
Kitchen knives
The police on the scene were transport officers who engaged the attackers in a short gun battle. One of the officers was seriously wounded in the exchange.
Yakov Cohen, a 60-year-old pensioner who lives in an apartment block opposite the synagogue, described witnessing the attack and its conclusion.
“I was getting ready to go down and pray myself. My wife had gone out for a walk,” he told the Guardian. “She called to tell me there was shooting and to stay at home. I saw armed police at the door of the synagogue and then heard one of them shout: ‘He’s getting ready to come out.’ An Arab came out of the building, a man in his 30s. The police shot him as he came out.”
One of the officers involved, a police forensics officer who arrived at the scene, described the final few moments of the attack to the Israeli website Ynet. “I saw a policeman with gunshot wounds and two terrorists with kitchen knives, covered in blood and holding a gun, running towards us,” said the superintendent, who was not identified. “I fired at them until they were neutralised.”
Guardian News Service