BREAKING NEWS: Bloodshed and Murder at Rabbinical Seminary in Israel

A group calling itself the "Jalil Freedom Battalions - the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza" is claiming responsibility.

LOS ANGELES (Catholic Online) - A lone Palestinian gunmen made his way into the Rabbinical Seminary in West Jerusalem and began to fire indiscriminately. In the aftermath, eight were killed and at least nine more injured.

Eye witnesses said that the shooter entered either into the library or the cafeteria, depending upon the account, at the Mercaz Harav seminary in the city's Kiryat Moshe quarter. The killer was himself then shot dead by either a student or by an Israeli Army Officer.

The Rabbinical Seminary is associated with the settler movement.

The BBC reported that this was the probable reason for the murderous attack. It was founded Rabbi Avraham Hacohen Kook in 1924. There are close to 500 students engaged in the study of Talmud, preparing for ordination as Rabbi's or for service as rabbinical judges.

Many of the students are also members of combat units of the Israeli Army.

The Israeli army is indicating that the identity of the assailant is known and that he was a resident of East Jerusalem.

A group calling itself the "Jalil Freedom Battalions - the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza" is claiming responsibility for these brutal attacks according to the media in Lebanon.

The White House was quick to condemn the attack; it is being joined internationally by a growing number of heads of State. However, because of the reticence of Libya, the UN Security Council was unable to agree on a condemnation resolution.

Hamas is reported to have referred to the attack as "heroic".

Eye witnesses indicated: "When we got in... we saw young, 15-, 16-year-old guys lying on the floor with their Bibles in their hands - all dead on the floor".

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