A man entered Yeshivat Hanegev in Netivot in southern Israel on the eve of Yom Kippur as the Kol Nidrei prayer was underway - drunk and holding a pistol in his hand.
The three hundred students at the institute for Jewish religious study began to flee the scene, and police were alerted.
Eyewitnesses said the attacker wore a black undershirt and was wearing a sun hat.
They described the chaotic spectacle. “All the worshipers ran outside. For an instant, it seemed like a terror attack that had been planned for Yom Kippur. People were almost trampled as they scrambled to get outside. Women started crying. There was, for an instant, a feeling of death. It took some time before it became clear that we were dealing with a mentally unstable person.”
Police arrived at the scene and detained the man for investigation.