Gunman kills 2, wounded 11 in Tel Aviv gay bar

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Israeli gays in shock after gunman's deadly rampage

TEL AVIV — Israeli gays were in shock on Sunday after a gunman killed two people, but some said such an attack in a country where homosexuals are often vilified by religious groups was only a matter of time.

Saturday's shooting at a community centre for gay and lesbian teenagers in the heart of Tel Aviv sent fear coursing through members of the Jewish state's vibrant homosexual community -- but it also came as little surprise.

Noa Shalev was at a party nearby when she heard the news that two people had been shot and 11 others wounded by a black-clad and masked gunman at the Bar Noar ("Youth Bar").

"People wanted to be angry, people wanted to cry, but I simply felt fear," Shalev said outside the scene of the attack where representatives of the gay community were meeting to weigh their reaction to the unprecedented killings.

The fact that the unidentified shooter was still at large and being hunted by police only deepened her anxiety.

"You tell yourself 'someone is after me, after me and no one else'," the 26-year-old student said.

Striped flags of the gay community and flowers decked police barriers outside the club on Sunday. Placards placed on the ground read "The death of human rights", "Down with homophobia" and "We are not afraid."

Inside the community centre, tables and chairs were strewn upside down on the floor amid the bloodstains.

Police said a teenage girl and a man in his 20s were killed on the spot and 15 people injured, including three seriously. It was the worst attack ever on Israel's gay and lesbian community.

The coastal city of Tel Aviv has for years been a proud bastion of Israel's gay and lesbian community, earning an international reputation for its openness and plethora of gay clubs and bars.

Although there are small gay communities in the main cities, Tel Aviv's image contrasts strongly with a general conservatism in Israeli society and a public disgust towards homosexuals expressed by religious groups.

Sitting next to Shalev, Yael Relevi said that the shooting was merely the latest in a long history of attacks and threats against members of the gay community over recent years.

These included a stabbing attack by an ultra-Orthodox Jew during a Gay Pride Parade in Jerusalem four years ago.

"It made me feel bad when I realised that we were subject to such hatred. The incident surprised me, but it follows many attacks against the community," Relevi, 22, said of Saturday's attack.

Yoav Zemer, 58, donned a pink shirt on Sunday morning, and said he refuses to be scared off by the attack. But he was still unable to hold back the tears.

"Yesterday's incident will return. It didn't target only us, it targeted Israel which used to be a source of pride and pluralism," Zemer said.

He has been beaten up more than once in the 30 years or so since he came out as a homosexual.

Yitzik Dror, a spokesman for the gay and lesbian community centre, said the Tel Aviv attack followed years of incitement against homosexuals.

But he refused to point the finger of blame at ultra-Orthodox MPs who have lashed out at homosexuals, including one who labelled them "worse than beasts."

"We ask all MPs to end incitement in general, not just against the gay community," Dror said.

Gal Ochovski, a well-known member of Israel's gay community, said it had only been a matter of time before violence against the country's homosexuals came to this.

"Everyone living in Israel knows that in such an atmosphere of violence such a thing could happen. Israel is both a very tolerant place for gays and lesbians but also a very violent place," he said.

"Sometimes, unfortunately, the two can collide."