MOSCOW, November 18 (Sputnik) — Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, France’s Francois Hollande, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart Philip Hammond have all criticized the Tuesday attack in a Jerusalem synagogue that claimed the lives of 4.
“This is the direct result of the incitement being led by Hamas and Abu Mazen, incitement which international community is irresponsibly ignoring,” said, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement published by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday.
Other politicians also issued statements condemning the attack.
“The president [of France] denounces with great force the odious attack that has taken place this morning in a synagogue in Jerusalem, as well as those who praise this act,” a statement released by the Hollande administration said, adding that French president expresses deep concern at the chain of violent acts in Jerusalem, Israel and the West Bank.
Kerry and Hammond condemned the terrorist attack on the synagogue while speaking to the press prior to their breakfast meeting in London this morning.
“They were hatched, hacked and murdered in that holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality and murder. I call on Palestinians at every single level of leadership to condemn this in the most powerful terms. This violence has no place anywhere,” said Kerry to the press.
Hammond added that “both sides in this conflict need to do everything possible to de-escalate the situation.”
Abbas’s office issued a statement, saying “The Palestinian presidency has always condemned killing of the civilians on either side, and condemns today the killing of worshippers at a synagogue in west Jerusalem.”
Two Palestinians armed with a gun and a meat cleaver murdered 4 people and wounded several others in the Kehillat Bnei Torah synagogue in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of West Jerusalem, before they were shot dead by the police.
