Abbas Responsible For Jerusalem Attack: Israeli Fm

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for a deadly attack that targeted a synagogue in West Jerusalem by two Palestinians earlier in the day.



"The responsibility (for the attack) rests entirely with the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas," Lieberman said in a brief statement.



He argued that Abbas has "deliberately turned the conflict into a religious conflict between Jews and Muslims."



"The systematic incitement he (Abbas) leads against Jew…provides the guidance for such heinous attacks," the minister added, urging the international community to condemn Abbas' statements which he termed as "anti-Semitic."



Earlier in the day, four Israelis were killed and seven others injured in an attack by two Palestinians on a Jewish synagogue in West Jerusalem, with the two attackers gunned down by Israeli police in the immediate wake of the attack.



The attackers were identified as cousins named Ghassan and Oudai Abu Jamal from the neighborhood of Jabal al-Mukaber in occupied East Jerusalem.  



The two assailants attacked the Jewish religious center using axes and a gun, Luba Samri, a spokeswoman for the Israeli police, said.



No group has thus far claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the eighth in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, as well as Tel Aviv, within one month.



Six Israelis – including two security personnel – were killed and several others injures in attacks by Palestinians since late October, amid markedly heightened tension which traces back to the abduction and murder of a Palestinian teenager in East Jerusalem by Jewish settlers in June.



Israeli forces have also killed three Palestinian attackers, two of which were shot on the scene, and detained another.



The tension had reignited when Israeli authorities closed off East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Asqa Mosque complex for hours following the injury of an extremist rabbi who was shot by a Palestinian man in west Jerusalem.



Following the shooting, Israeli troops killed the man in a raid on his East Jerusalem, igniting violent clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters.



For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.



Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.



In September 2000, a visit to Al-Aqsa by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon triggered what later became known as the "Second Intifada," a popular uprising against Israel's decades-long occupation in which thousands of Palestinians were killed.



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