Palestinians shouting "Allahu Akbar" storm Jerusalem synagogue, killing 3 Americans, 1 Briton

(Fox News) Three Americans were among four worshippers killed in a Jerusalem synagogue Tuesday by two Palestinians wielding meat cleavers and a gun and shouting "Allahu Akbar" in a brutal attack that prompted a vow from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "respond harshly."

The American citizens -- identified by the State Department as Mosheh Twersky, Aryeh Kupinsky and Cary William Levine -- were killed along with a Briton when the assailants, identified as cousins, stormed the building and began attacking people. Police said those killed were all immigrants to Israel and held dual citizenship.

Eight others were injured -- one critically -- before the attackers were killed in a shootout with police. The Times of Israel cited witnesses who said the attackers stormed the synagogue, in the ultra-Orthodox Har Nof neighborhood in the western part of Jerusalem, shouting "Allahu Akbar," Arabic for "God is Great," and creating a horrific scene of bloody carnage.

"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 man who identified himself as Yossi, who was praying at the synagogue at the time of the attack, told Israeli Channel 2 TV. He declined to give his last name.

The attack was the deadliest in Israel's capital since 2008, when a Palestinian gunman shot eight people in a religious seminary school.

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