Violence after attack on Jerusalem synagogue

Fighting has broken out between Israeli police and Palestinians in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank following an attack on a synagogue in the west of the city in which four Israelis were killed and eight others injured by two Palestinian men.

The Palestinian attackers, who police said were armed with a gun and axes, were shot dead by police after gaining entrance to the Har Nof Synagogue on Tuesday.
Palestinian medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 35 Palestinians were wounded in confrontations between the Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem after the synagogue attack.

Sources said that 10 Palestinians were wounded in Al Ram, located in northeast Jerusalem, and 25 others were wounded in Sur Baher, south of the city.

There were also reports of confrontations in Ramallah, in the West Bank, as three Israeli military vehicles drove by the outskirts of the city. Minor confrontations were also reported at the illegal Psagot settlement, south of Ramallah.

In response to the synagogue attack, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned of a “harsh response,” ordered the demolition of the homes of the two Palestinians who carried out the attack.

Israeli soldiers and vehicles started the demolition on Tuesday evening.

Netanyahu said that Hamas, the Palestinian faction that governs the Gaza Strip, had spread lies that Israel was trying to take control of a religious site in occupied East Jerusalem, called Temple Mount by Israelis and Haram al-Sharif by Arabs.

“This caused the attacks,” Netanyahu said. “There is no end to their [Hamas's] terror against the state of Israel.”

Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killings while Hamas said it was “a natural reaction to Israel’s practices” against Palestinians.