JERUSALEM (AFP) – An assailant stabbed four people taking part in a Gay Pride march in central Jerusalem Thursday, Israeli police and health services said.
Police said a man was arrested, without identifying him, but public radio said the suspect was an ultra-Orthodox Jew.
The Magen David Adom, the Jewish equivalent of the Red Cross, said one of the casualties was in serious condition.
Hundreds of police are deployed to prevent violence breaking out in the highly conservative city during the annual march.
In past years, ultra-Orthodox Jews have gathered in the city’s Mea Shearim quarter to denounce what they consider the “abomination” of homosexuality.
Israel is widely seen as having liberal gay rights policies, despite the ultra-Orthodox hostility towards homosexuals, particularly men.
The Jewish state repealed a ban on consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1988.
