Netanyahu condemns ‘horrifying anti-Semitic brutality’ after Pittsburgh shooting

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement Saturday condemning a shooting attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue that left at least eight people dead and six others wounded.

The conservative Israeli leader called the attack, which law enforcement sources told news outlets was committed by 46-year-old Robert Bowers, was a “horrifying” act of “anti-Semitic brutality” in a video.

{mosads}”I was heartbroken and appalled by the murderous attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue today,” Netanyahu says in the video.

“The whole of Israel grieves with the families of the dead,” he continues. “We stand together with the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, we stand together with the American people in the face of this horrifying anti-Semitic brutality. We all pray for their rapid recovery.”

I was heartbroken and appalled by the murderous attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue today: pic.twitter.com/NBMO31lMU2

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) October 27, 2018

The FBI is reportedly handling the investigation into Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue, and is investigating the attack as a hate crime according to multiple news reports.

President Trump also condemned the attack as an example of “anti-Semitic crime,” which he told reporters in Indianapolis was “something you wouldn’t believe could still be going on.”

“It looks definitely like it’s an anti-Semitic crime. That is something you wouldn’t believe could still be going on,” he told reporters. 

“A lot of people killed, a lot of people very badly wounded. They say as a crime scene it’s one of the worst that some professionals that have seen many many crime scenes, they say it’s one of the worst,” the president added.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also released a statement Saturday following the attack that said the White House stood in “solidarity” with the Jewish community.

“Saddened and appalled by the cowardly act of evil committed at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,” she wrote. “We stand in total solidarity with the victims and all of the Jewish community against bigotry and hate.”