By Alaa Rimawi
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday denounced the Palestinian Authority and Hamas group for spreading what he described as "lies" and "hatred" against Israel.
"Hamas, the Islamic Movement and the Palestinian Authority are spreading countless of libels and lies against the State of Israel," Netanyahu said in a press conference in Jerusalem.
Earlier Tuesday, four Israelis were killed and seven others injured in an attack by two Palestinians on a Jewish synagogue in west Jerusalem.
The attackers were shot dead by Israeli police in the immediate wake of the attack.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.
Following the attack, Netanyahu "ordered the demolition of the homes of the two Palestinian attackers of the Jewish synagogue.
"We are in the midst of a terror campaign focused on Jerusalem," Netanyahu said. "The animals who committed this massacre came charged with vast hatred from wide-raging incitement against the Jewish people and its country."
Netanyahu said that the condemnation of the Jerusalem attack by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "was not enough".
During the press conference, Netanyahu brought up the case of Youssef Hassan al-Ramouni, the Palestinian bus driver who was found hanged inside a bus in west Jerusalem late Sunday.
"Yesterday, a bus driver from East Jerusalem committed suicide. The pathological report's findings, which were released to the public, prove it unequivocally. But this did not prevent those inciting to spread these blood libels that he was murdered by Jews. And this incitement played a part in the shocking massacre this morning," he said.
Police spokesman earlier told The Anadolu Agency that findings from autopsy on the driver showed that his death "was not caused by criminal action."
Six Israelis, including two security personnel, have been killed – and several others injured – in a spate of attacks by Palestinians since late October.
Tension mounted further on October 30, when Israeli authorities sealed access to East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Asqa Mosque complex for several hours after an extremist rabbi was shot and injured by a Palestinian man in West Jerusalem.
www.aa.com.tr/en
