Hunt for masked gunman who shot dead two at Israeli gay youth club

Published on Sunday 2 August 2009 22:46

HUNDREDS of police officers scoured the streets of Tel Aviv yesterday, as a manhunt got under way for the masked gunman who shot and killed two people at a gay youth club.

The murders have shocked the Mediterranean city, which prides itself on its liberal culture and boasts a thriving gay community. The brazen attack drew condemnations from the mayor, from cabinet ministers, chief rabbis and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We'll bring him to justice and exercise the full extent of the law against him," Mr Netanyahu said during yesterday's weekly cabinet meeting.

The masked man entered the centre for gay teenagers in central Tel Aviv late on Saturday night, pulled out a pistol and opened fire, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

The killer then concealed his weapon and ran into the busy streets.

The dead were identified as a 26-year-old man who was a counsellor at the centre, and a 17-year-old girl. Eleven people were wounded, four seriously.

"I took cover with someone under a table, and he kept firing," Or Gil, 16, who was shot twice in the legs, recounted in news footage aired on the YNet news website. "When I got up it was horrifying, I just saw blood," he said.

Photographs of the scene showed bodies lying near a billiard table and a smear of blood on the white tile floor.

Jonathan Bower, 23, said he had been at the club before the attack and was outside when the shots began. He went on: "One of my friends came out shouting and screaming, 'He has a gun, he has a gun'."

Mr Bower was outside the club yesterday along with a crowd of supporters and onlookers. A bouquet of flowers rested on the kerb, near barricades erected by police and a sign reading "Stop Homophobia".

Nitzan Horowitz, Israel's only openly gay politician, called the attack a "hate crime".

"This is the worst attack ever against the gay community in Israel," he said.

"This act was a blind attack against innocent youths, and I expect the authorities to exercise all means in apprehending the shooter."

Mike Hamel, a gay rights activist whose organisation runs the youth club, said the centre served as a safe place where gay teenagers – many still concealing their sexual identity from their families and friends – could meet counsellors and other young people. He blamed religious incitement against homosexuals for the attack.

"Beyond the pain, the frustration and the anger, we are facing a situation in which the incitement to hate creates an environment that allows this to happen," Mr Hamel said.

Israel's gays and lesbians typically enjoy freedoms similar to those of gays in European countries. Gay soldiers serve openly in the military, and openly gay musicians and actors are among the country's most popular.

However, ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders often incite against gays, especially in conservative Jerusalem, where there have been clashes between religious and gay activists.

In 2005, an ultra-Orthodox protester stabbed three marchers at a Jerusalem gay parade.