At least four people have been killed and several injured in an attack by two suspects at a synagogue in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would respond to the killings "with a heavy hand", reports GHN based on DW.
An Israeli police spokesman said the two suspects used knives, axes and a pistol in the attack on a congregation of Jews gathered for morning prayers.
"We are viewing this as a terrorist attack," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the Reuters news agency.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri was quoted as saying that the two assailants had been killed in a shoot-out with police.
"Two terrorists, apparently from east Jerusalem, entered a yeshiva (Jewish seminary) in Har Nof (a neighborhood in the southwest of the city) and attacked worshippers with axes and a pistol," Samri said.
"The two terrorists were neutralized," she added, using a police euphemism for the killing of a suspect.
The attack was the deadliest in Jerusalem in years and comes after months of increased tension in the city.
Video broadcast on Israeli television showed the synagogue surrounded by police and rescue workers shortly after the attack.
"I tried to escape. The man with the knife approached me. There was a chair and table between us ... my prayer shawl got caught. I left it there and escaped," a worshipper identified as Yossi told Israel's Channel 2 television.
The attack was hailed by the Islamist miliant group Hamas, but it stopped short of claiming responsibility.