Kerry calls Jerusalem synagogue attack ‘senseless brutality’

U.S. Secretary of state John Kerry described an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue by two suspected Palestinian men armed with axes and knives that left four dead on Tuesday was an act of “senseless brutality”.

“This simply has no place in human behavior,” Kerry told reporters ahead of a meting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in London.

“People who had come to worship God in the sanctuary of the synagogue were hatcheted and hacked and murdered in their holy place in an act of pure terror and senseless brutality.”

Kerry, who said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called for Palestinian leaders to condemn the attack.

“The Palestinian leadership … must begin to take steps to restrain any kind of incitement that comes from their language or from other people's language and exhibit the kind of leadership that is necessary to put this region on a peaceful path,” he said.