The victims in the Jerusalem synagogue attack Tuesday were confirmed by Isralei police as three Americans and one Briton.
All four of the victims in the attack immigrated to Israel and held dual citizenship in the country, police told The Associated Press.
Palestinean attackers Ghassan and Oday Abu Jamal from the Jabal Mukaber neighborhood in east Jerusalem broke into the synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood in Israel early Tuesday morning, armed with a pistol, knife and axes, as HNGN previously reported.
Har Nof is an ultra-orthadox neighborhood that is home to many Western immigrants to the country.
"We will respond with a firm hand to this brutal murder of Jews who went to pray and were scathed by despicable murder," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a Tuesday meeting. "This is a direct result of the incitement lead by Hamas and Abu Mazen (Abbas), incitement that the international community irresponsibly ignores," Natanyahu continued, according to Haaretz.
The attack was praised separately by Hamas and Islamic Jihad as the news spread world wide, reported Times of Israel.
"Hamas calls for more operations like it," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement of the attack.
Similarly, Islamic Jihad released a similar statement: "Islamic Jihad salutes the operation in Jerusalem which is a natural response to the crimes of the occupier."
Tuesday's attack was the deadliest in Israel since March 2008 where a Palestinian assailant killed eight students at a Jewish seminar, AP reported.
Six other victims, not including the four Westerns who were killed, were injured in the attack.
The motive of the attackers is still unclear, but Israel's police chief told AP he doesn't believe it was organized by militant groups.
Recent violence attacks within Israel were accredited to tensions surrounding the Jerusalem holy site, which is referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount (Jewish temples stood there in biblical times).
