Four Israelis were praying praying peacefully in the Jerusalem synagogue were attacked with pistol an meat cleavers and killed mercilessly by Palestinians in East Jerusalem today.
The four victims had dual citizen ship, three with Israeli-US citizenship and one with Israeli-UK citizenship. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the militant group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the bloody attack. However, Abbas office issued an official statement that “The presidency condemns the attack on Jewish worshippers in their place of prayer and condemns the killing of civilians no matter who is doing it.”.
There has been high tension in recent times with Palestinians creating disruption and protests. It should also be noted that even though Israel had won the war of 1967 and succesfully captured the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel still handed control to the Islamic religious authorities. Recently, Jews have begun to request for change in status quo and allow them to pray there. However, even after Israel had given the holy place to Muslims by its own peace keeping gesture, the Islamic world allows only Muslims to pray on the site.