Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox stunned by synagogue carnage
Tuesday morning began as normal in the leafy west Jerusalem suburb of Har Nof, with residents gathering to pray in their local synagogue.
Two hours later, after the holy city's bloodiest attack on Jews in years killed four worshippers, an ultra-Orthodox man in black and white robes swayed outside as he mourned the dead.
At 7:00 am (0500 GMT), two Palestinians armed with a gun and meat cleavers burst into the house of worship and cut down four people before themselves being shot dead by security forces.
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish worshipper prays at the scene of an attack -- by two Palestinians on Israeli worshippers -- at a synagogue in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem, on November 18, 2014 ©Jack Guez (AFP)
Police kept onlookers behind cordons and women wailed as dozens of forensic specialists crowded around the synagogue entrance and pored over what appeared to be the attackers' car.
Sarah Abrahams, a horrified resident, described scenes of carnage.
"I was going for a morning walk and passing by on the road above the synagogue," she said.
"Someone told me not to go any closer and that there was something big going on, but I walked down to see.
"There were people running from the synagogue, and a man sitting on the pavement covered in blood, it looked like he has been stabbed," she said.
- Bloodied prayer shawls -
"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."
As she spoke, medics brought out four bodies one by one, each wrapped in white plastic, and loaded them gently into ambulances.
Grisly images from inside the synagogue showed prayer books and traditional white prayer shawls drenched in blood, and a wide arc of blood splattered across walls and bookshelves.
Emergency worker Moti Bukchi who went inside to help the wounded described scenes of horror.
"The scene inside was harrowing, with a lot of blood," he told AFP.
"Inside the synagogue some people were wounded by gunshots, others had chopped off limbs caused by a meat cleaver," he said.
"We have seen things here for the first time -- a man goes in with a meat cleaver and starts to attack people and chop off their limbs? That is something new."
The rare attack on a place of worship sent shock waves across Israel.
It came as months of unrest gripped the city's annexed Arab eastern sector and triggered a wave of deadly attacks by lone Palestinians.
Residents were perplexed as to why the attack targeted their neighbourhood, far from flashpoint east Jerusalem areas that have seen most of the violence.
- Blaming Mahmud Abbas -
"This is a yeshiva (Jewish seminary) community. Ninety percent don't serve in the army. We're not violent," said Moshe Eliezer.
"I woke up 15 minutes late this morning, normally I'd have been there praying," he said, visibly shaken and fighting back tears.
"I know one of the kids," Eliezer added of one of the victims. "He was a tremendous scholar, and wouldn't hurt a fly."
Both Israel's government and the public are already blaming Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas.
"This is the direct result of incitement by Hamas and Abu Mazen (Abbas), incitement that the international community ignores in an irresponsible manner," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Eliezer agreed.
"The Palestinian leadership has been inciting them (would-be attackers) for years, saying we're a cancerous tumour," he said.
"They want to annihilate us."
Abbas condemned Tuesday's attack and "all violent actions".
But he also slammed as "provocations" attempts by Jewish extremists to claim prayer rights at the Old City's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound -- a site sacred to both faiths and one of the most sensitive in the Middle East.
Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas hailed the attack as a response to the death of a Palestinian driver from east Jerusalem found hanged in his bus in disputed circumstances.
"Maybe it's our own fault," Eliezer added mournfully of anti-Jewish violence.
"Not for the reasons the leftwingers say, but for spiritual reasons."
Ultra-Orthodox Jews inspect the scene of an attack -- by two Palestinians on Israeli worshippers -- at a synagogue in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem, on November 18, 2014 ©Jack Guez (AFP)
An ultra-orthodox Jewish man puts his head in his hands, inside a synagogue that was attacked by two Palestinians in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem, on November 18, 2014 ©Jack Guez (AFP)
A member of the Israeli emergency services cleans the sidewalk at the scene of an attack at a synagogue in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem, on November 18, 2014 ©Jack Guez (AFP)
Israeli border police stand guard near the Abu Jamal residence in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jabal Mukaber, on November 18, 2014 ©Ahmad Gharabli (AFP)
A masked Palestinian hands out sweets as he celebrates an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue during a rally in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on November 18, 2014 ©Said Khatib (AFP)
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