Even in Israel, where people are accustomed to harsh scenes and scenarios, it was an unusually horrific incident. On the morning of Nov. 18, a synagogue in the heart of the Israeli capital city looked like a slaughterhouse. “For a moment I thought that Islamic State [IS] had found its way here,” said one of the stunned eyewitnesses.

The Kehillat Yaakov synagogue, in the center of Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, was drenched in blood. Slain worshippers were scattered about in large pools of blood. Worshippers who had been wounded in various degrees of severity were also scattered on the floor, moaning in pain. Two Jerusalem paramedics arrived quickly at the scene even before the security forces and started to treat the wounded. But when they, too, were attacked by two Palestinian terrorists who shot at them, the paramedics fled. Shouts of “Allahu Akbar” were heard from inside the synagogue.

The attack lasted less than half an hour. By the end of it, the two terrorists, cousins from the East Jerusalem Jabel Mukaber village, lay dead. Surrounding them were also the bodies of four Jewish worshippers, including the head of a Jerusalem rabbinical college, Rabbi Moshe Twersky. An Israeli policeman was in critical condition, another policeman was moderately wounded and additional worshippers suffered very severe wounds. Three out of the four murdered Israelis were also American citizens. The fourth was born in Great Britain. The attack left 24 sons and daughters fatherless.

The sun returned to Jerusalem on Tuesday morning after two rainy days. The air was clear and cold, as is customary for Jerusalem fall weather. A thin layer of optimism covered Jerusalem. Violent events were in decline, even the tension surrounding the Temple Mount began to abate following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Amman on Nov. 13. It seemed as if the evil winds that blew throughout the entire region in recent months had started to die down. Yehuda Glick, one of the Jewish activists for freedom of worship on the Temple Mount, who had been shot by a Palestinian assassin two weeks earlier, on Oct. 29, had recuperated enough to give his first interview from the hospital, the evening before. And then, a little bit before 7 a.m., madness returned to wreak havoc.