WASHINGTON, November 18 (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama has denounced the Tuesday attack in a Jerusalem synagogue and expressed condolences to the families of the victims, three of whom were US citizens.
“I strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack on worshipers at a synagogue in Jerusalem, which killed four innocent people, including US citizens Aryeh Kupinsky, Cary William Levine, and Mosheh Twersky, and injured several more,” Obama stated.
“There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians. The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the victims and families of all those who were killed and injured in this horrific attack and in other recent violence,” he added.
The US president also called on the leaders of Israel and Palestine to cooperate.
“At this sensitive moment in Jerusalem, it is all the more important for Israeli and Palestinian leaders and ordinary citizens to work cooperatively together to lower tensions, reject violence, and seek a path forward towards peace,” the statement read.
On Tuesday morning, four people were killed and eight wounded in a terrorist attack committed by two suspected Palestinian men with knives and axes at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood. Both terrorists were shot dead by police.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as a number of high-ranking Western officials have condemned the deadly attack.
