Tel Aviv
BBC
A lone gunman has killed two people and wounded at least 10 at a gay support centre in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv before escaping.
Most of the victims were gay teenagers, who were meeting at the centre on Nachmani street when the gunman entered and started firing indiscriminately.
The black-clad man is still at large and police have ordered the temporary closure of all gay clubs in the city.
Gay leaders say it is Israel’s worst-ever hate crime against the community.
Gunman attacks Israeli gay centre
Witnesses said the gunman fired in all directions with a handgun.
At one point, three deaths were being reported but later accounts spoke only of two fatalities – that of a young man and a young woman.
The shootings took place at the headquarters of the local lesbian and gay rights association.
Shock
Anon Shabtie, who works at the Evita gay bar close to the centre, told BBC Radio 5 Live that the gunman had attacked a place which helped young gay people:
“We have a centre for people who want to go out of the closet or get support from the community and they come there every day and there are people supporting them.
“And unfortunately on Saturday evening there are teenagers coming there and they were like I don’t know many guys sitting there with a guy who help them.
“And then the guy came with a helmet on his head and he was shooting them without any reason.”
Hundreds of lesbian and gay Israelis held a rally and lit candles in Tel Aviv in protest at the shooting.
One woman said she was “terrified, shocked, surprised, amazed” by the attack “because it was so unexpected”.
Yaron Arad, who works at a nearby hotel, said the gay community was part of the city.
“We know that Tel Aviv has a very lively gay community with plenty of activities going around,” he told the BBC.
“That’s actually the surprising issue, there is not at all any homophobic activity in Tel Aviv.
“Jerusalem does not naturally accept the gay community but here in Tel Aviv it’s different, totally different story. A lot of parties, a lot of gay people having fun here. That’s why it’s so shocking what’s happened here tonight.”
‘Inside knowledge‘
Annual gay pride marches are often met with violent protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem.
The head of Israel’s youth Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association, Yaniv Weizman, told the BBC the gunman must have intended to attack the centre “because it’s not a place you can see outside”.
He said the gay community was demanding to know why it had been targeted.
“The gay community in Israel, in Tel Aviv, today got a message, a very strong message, a red light, that Israel, Tel Aviv, no longer a safe place to no one,” he said.
“And if someone can give himself the option just to say like hate and to say things against the gay community, today he can see the pictures and to see what these words can lead to.”
Tel Aviv has in the past been targeted in attacks by Palestinian militants but there was no suggestion that Saturday’s attack had a political motive.
A police spokesman described the attack as “criminal rather than nationalistic”.
