People dancing and singing through the streets of Jerusalem during the capital city's annual Gay Pride Parade were left shrieking in pain and panic Thursday night, as an anti-gay extremist lunged into a group leading the march and stabbed six people, Israeli police and witnesses said. The assailant was identified as Yishai Schlissel, an ultra-Orthodox man who was released from prison several weeks ago for perpetrating a similar attack at the 2005 parade. In the previous attack, Schlissel stabbed three people. Israel's Channel 2 television aired an interview that Schlissel gave to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish site recently, in which he spoke out against the parade in Jerusalem. His remarks were an eerie prelude to Thursday's attack. About 5,000 people celebrating the event were marching along Keren Hayesod Street when Schlissel jumped into the crowd after apparently hiding at a nearby supermarket and plunged a knife into some of the participants, wildly stabbing the horror-struck marchers before being tackled by police. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the wounded before rushing them to nearby hospitals. Dr. Ofer Merin, trauma unit chief at Shaare Zedek Medical Center said they were treating two victims, a 26-year-old man in serious condition and a 16-year-old girl in critical condition. The man had a CT scan and was transferred in stable condition to the cardiothoracic surgery unit. The girl was stabbed in the back and is suffering from injuries to her upper torso. Her condition was described as critical. The parade continued after the wounded were taken to hospital for treatment, but in a far more somber atmosphere. Media reported that thousands of Jerusalem residents who had not initially participated in the parade joined in solidarity after the attack. Arinna, a tourist who was visiting Israel from Moscow, joined the Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem and was shocked by the incident. "So I feel awful about that, but in any case I feel very proud that such parade is happening right now in Jerusalem, this is a good thing I think," she said. Ami, a Jerusalem resident, recalled how he had heard the ambulance sirens that alerted him to the incident. "A lot of people were very happy, and then in the middle we start hearing sirens, ambulance sirens, and we understood that some people were stabbed," he said. Just a few thousand people usually attend the parade in Jerusalem, a city known for its religious history and tradition. A majority of Jerusalem's residents are observant Jews, Muslims or Christians -- conservative communities whose members mostly frown upon homosexuality. Previous parades in the holy city have drawn opposition. Jerusalem's parade is much smaller and more restrained than the annual Gay Pride Parade in secular Tel Aviv, which was attended by some 100,000 revelers last month.
Credit:Reuters
"The struggle isn't over and the impure want to contaminate Jerusalem," he said. "They want to contaminate the people of Israel."
