Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “criminal act” and said that “those responsible must be severely punished.”
Defence Minister Ehud Barak called for the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence service, to investigate the matter.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal centre, said: “We find this an intolerable attack not only on a religious site, but on the core values of democracy and tolerance that are sacrosanct to the vast majority of Israelis.
“The Israeli people recognise that Jews have a special obligation to protect the rights of everyone in the state of Israel to pray.”