A massacre -- there is no other way to describe what transpired Tuesday morning at the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighborhood. All that remained a few minutes later, when the killing had ended, was a puddle of blood on the floor, prayer brooks scattered about and a large butcher's knife, also soaked in blood, to tell the story of what had happened there. The terrorists, Arab residents of the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood of east Jerusalem, managed to murder four people and wound seven more, before they were killed by a courageous police officer. Later in the day, another police officer who had arrived at the scene died of his wounds in the hospital. It happened at 7 in the morning. The first minyan (prayer gathering) for the Shaharit morning prayer had just concluded on Agasi Street in the nation's capital. The majority of the synagogue's members hail from the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox sect residing in the quiet and well-to-do central Jerusalem neighborhood. The participants of the first minyan were just finishing their service. The minyan begins every day at 6:25 a.m. The second minyan, on the second floor above the prayer hall, always starts at 7 a.m. Dozens of people were in the building at the time of the attack. The terrorists entered the synagogue. One of them, armed with a large butcher's knife, appeared to have immediately climbed to the second floor, where proceeded to stab bystanders. Another terrorist, also armed with a butcher's knife and a pistol, entered the prayer hall on the first floor. "At 7:01 in the morning after the Amidah prayer, as I was stepping backward (part of the prayer ritual), I suddenly heard shooting," recounted Yaakov Amos, who was standing near one of the benches on one side of the first-floor hall. "I glanced backward and saw a Jew sprawled on the floor with a tallit and tefillin. To my left I saw I saw the scoundrel. The terrorist passed me by on my left and simply started to butcher people in the middle of the Amidah prayer, one after the other. Boom, boom, boom. A matter of seconds. He was screaming 'Allahu akbar ' ['God is great' in Arabic]. I protected myself with a book stand and looked between the cracks; people were standing with their backs to him and he just shot them at point blank range. It was very scary. When I saw he was about to finish with that row and turn toward me, I threw the stand at him and just ran outside while still hearing gunshots. I went down the stairs and yelled to people in the street, 'They're shooting us, they're shooting us, call the police.' People looked at me in shock. They didn't understand what I was even talking about." Yosef also survived the horror. "I was in the middle of the Amidah prayer and heard gun shots at the entrance to the synagogue," he recalled. "I turned around and saw a man come in with a gun and start shooting in all directions. Afterwards he began shooting at point blank range. People fell down and tried hiding. And then the second one came in with something like a butcher's knife, those big ones, and started stabbing people. There was one guy there with guts, he picked up a chair and confronted one of the terrorists with it. I took the opportunity to get out of there." The report of gunfire in the synagogue was received by police and Magen David Adom first aid rescuers at 7:01. Two on-duty traffic policemen in the vicinity heard the report and quickly drove to the scene. After seven minutes they arrived at the synagogue, followed several seconds later by a police officer who had also heard the report on the police radio. The first to arrive at the scene, however, were two MDA paramedics who had not been far from the synagogue. Paramedic Akiva Polk described the ensuing events: "I was going into a class when another paramedic told me there was shooting on Agasi Street. We drove there together. At the entrance to the synagogue there was a man sitting, covered in blood, his tallit and tefillin also covered in blood, who told me he had been shot. I picked up his shirt and saw giant gashes on his back and chest. I told him, 'You were stabbed, not shot,' and he told me 'I was shot inside.' I went inside and saw a man lying on the floor. I dragged him toward the entrance to check his condition. We turned him over and saw he was without any signs of life and then we were also shot at. I immediately jumped down the entire flight of stairs and ran to take cover. Yanki, the paramedic who was with me, tried doing the same, but he fell and broke his ankle. We were still being shot at and the policemen came and began exchanging fire. We saw one officer get hit in the head and fall, we picked him up and ran with him to the ambulance. We treated him and sent him to Shaare Zedek hospital." At that stage, with the terrorists still shooting from inside the synagogue, police superintendent A., a forensics officer, arrived at the scene. "I noticed the policemen, I got closer to them while making sure not to take fire from higher ground," he said. "I got to the entrance and then saw the wounded officer and two terrorists with bloody butcher's knives and a gun running in our direction. I fired at them until they were neutralized." When additional police and ambulance backup arrived they entered the synagogue and discovered the scope of the horror. Gedalia Sabiner, a volunteer from the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization, said, "I went inside the building. It was the scene of a massacre. People were screaming. It reminded me of the scene after the Merkaz Harav terrorist attack."
A short while later, after the wounded were evacuated to hospital, ZAKA volunteers began working to find and gather body parts for proper Jewish burial, and wiping down the blood stains from the floors and walls.
