WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man stabbed several people at a gay pride parade in central Jerusalem on Thursday. Local media is reporting that the alleged attacker, Yishai Schlissel, had recently been released from prison having been convicted of stabbing three people at a similar parade in 2005.
Police arrest an ultra-Orthodox Jew after he attacked people with a knife during a Gay Pride parade Thursday, July 30, 2015 in central Jerusalem. Israeli police said several people were stabbed
Eli Bin of Israel's emergency service said six young people were wounded, two of them seriously. Witnesses told Channel 2 TV that the attacker rushed the marchers and stabbed multiple people before Israeli police jumped on him and arrested him. Yishai Avior told the station that he heard screaming and saw three people on the ground bleeding. Reports suggest that Schlissel hid in a nearby supermarket and jumped out to attack the march when it passed nearby.
Ultra-Orthodox Jew Yishai Schlissel walks through a Gay Pride parade and is just about to pull a knife from under his coat and start stabbing people in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 30, 2015
Jerusalem's annual parade is smaller and more restrained than the annual gay pride march in Tel Aviv, which was attended by some 100,000 revelers last month. Israel's ultra-Orthodox minority is hostile to homosexuality, with Pride marches a source of tension between the religious extremists and the country's secular, liberal-minded majority.
An ultra-Orthodox Jew stabs a woman in the back with a knife during a Gay Pride parade Thursday, July 30, 2015 in central Jerusalem