JERUSALEM — Israel vowed harsh retaliation Tuesday for a Palestinian attack that killed five people and left blood-smeared prayer books and shawls on the floor of a synagogue in Jerusalem — an assault that sharply escalated already-high tensions after weeks of religious violence.
The attack during prayers in the west Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof was carried out by two Palestinian cousins wielding meat cleavers, knives and a handgun. They were shot to death by police after the deadliest assault in the holy city since 2008.
Four of the dead were rabbis, and one was a police officer who died of his wounds hours later. Three of the rabbis were born in the United States, and the fourth was born in England, although all held dual Israeli citizenship. Five others were wounded.
One of those killed, Rabbi Kalman Levine had dedicated his life to the land and people of Israel, said his brother-in-law, Jonathan Bein of Boulder.
“There are people who, once they get there, their ethic is to never leave the land of Israel. He was one of those people,” said Bein, who is married to Levine’s sister, Shelly Levine.
“He was a very peaceful, sweet guy — guileless, learned,” Bein said. “Israel was his calling.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, the first time he has done so in the wave of deadly violence against Israelis. But he also called for an end to Israeli “provocations” surrounding Jerusalem’s shrines that are sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
President Barack Obama called the attack “horrific” and without justification, urging cooperation from both sides to ease tensions and adding that too many Israelis and Palestinians have died in recent months.
Tuesday’s attack, however, appeared to mark a turning point, with the gruesome scene in a house of worship shocking a nation long accustomed to violence.
The government released a photo of a meat cleaver it said came from the scene. Government video showed blood-soaked prayer books and prayer shawls in the synagogue. A pair of glasses lay under a table, and thick streaks of blood smeared the floor.
“I saw people lying on the floor, blood everywhere,” said Yosef Posternak, who was at the synagogue in the quiet neighborhood that has a large community of English-speaking immigrants.
“People were trying to fight with (the attackers), but they didn’t have much of a chance,” Posternak told Israel Radio.
In one of Israel’s first acts of retaliation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the demolitions of the homes of the attackers. But halting further violence could prove to be a tough challenge as police confront a new threat: lightly armed assailants from annexed east Jerusalem who hold residency rights that allow them to move freely throughout the country.
Netanyahu condemned the deaths of the “innocent and pure Jews.” In a nationally televised address, he accused Abbas of inciting the recent violence and said the Palestinian leader’s condemnation of the attack was insufficient.
Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack. In Gaza, dozens celebrated in the streets, with some offering trays full of candy.
The U.S.-born victims were identified as Moshe Twersky, 59; Aryeh Kupinsky, 43; and Levine, 55. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the British man was Avraham Goldberg, 68, who emigrated to Israel in 1993.
It described the four as rabbis, an honorific title in the ultra-Orthodox world given to men who are considered pious and learned.
Levine was a native of Kansas City, Mo., who attended the University of Southern California. He most recently was teaching at a Jerusalem seminary, Bein said.
Yerachmiel Levine recalled his father’s dedication to his religious studies.
“He would study all day long and would return home at night only to learn more until he would fall asleep in his chair,” the son said.
Thousands of people attended a joint funeral for Kupinsky, Levine and Goldberg before sundown outside the synagogue where they were killed.
The hilltop compound, in Jerusalem’s Old City, has been at the heart of the tensions. It is revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site of the ancient Hebrew temples. For Muslims, it is the Noble Sanctuary, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the iconic gold-topped Dome of the Rock.
Under a long-standing arrangement, Jews are permitted to visit but not to pray. A growing number of visits by Jewish worshippers, many who seek the right to pray there, has drawn Muslim accusations that Israel is secretly trying to take over the site and sparked violent clashes between young Palestinians and Israeli police.
Netanyahu repeatedly has said he will not change that arrangement, but the violence has spread beyond Jerusalem, with deadly stabbings in Tel Aviv and the West Bank last week, while the fatal shooting of a young Arab protester in northern Israel by police — apparently as he was walking away from an officer — has added to the tensions.
Late Tuesday, several hundred Jewish youths marched through downtown Jerusalem, blocking traffic and chanting, “Death to Arabs.” Police reported at least 10 arrests.
Police identified the synagogue attackers as Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal, cousins from east Jerusalem. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said they were killed in a shootout with police that left one officer critically wounded. He said police were trying to determine how the men had chosen their target.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the area, while the Palestinians claim it as their capital. Although the annexation is not internationally recognized, the more than 200,000 Arab residents of east Jerusalem have Israeli residency rights that allow them to move freely throughout the country. In contrast, West Bank residents and Gazans need Israeli permission to enter.
“There is no solution in the world of intelligence to the problem of a lone wolf who decides in the morning to launch an attack in the afternoon,” said Cabinet Minister Yaakov Peri, a former director of the Shin Bet internal security agency.
He said the “only solution is very strong deterrence,” such as swiftly demolishing the homes of attackers.
The attack was the deadliest in Jerusalem since a Palestinian assailant killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in March 2008.
