'They came in with guns and axes and they are killing everyone'

Families of the synagogue victims gathered at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem after Tuesday morning’s attack and spoke to MEE contributor Andrea Di Cenzo.

“At 7.05am (0505 GMT) a 12-year-old boy came knocking on the door of the house and said ‘the Arabs have gone into the synagogue. They came in with guns and axes and they are killing everyone.’,” said Sepora Heller, mother-in-law of Shmulik Goldstein, who was killed in the attack.

The boy, who was in the synagogue, had crawled along the floor to a partially open door as the attack took place and escaped.

Shmulik Goldstein’s father was also in the synagogue and is in hospital suffering from serious injuries to his head and torso. He is in a stable but serious condition.

"We received four severely wounded patients,” said Yoram Weiss, medical director of the Hadassah Medical Centre. “All of them have either gunshot wounds or injuries caused by a machete. All of them have some kind of head injury. Three of them are in the operating room right now."

One of the four patients being treated a police officer who was shot while responding to the incident this morning.