Police have arrested a man after six people were wounded in a stabbing at the Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem.
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A couple of thousand people marched in the religious city’s parade, a markedly more modest event compared to its Tel Aviv counterpart.
Marchers numbering about 5,000 and waving banners were heading down an avenue when an ultra-Orthodox man jumped into the crowd and plunged a knife into some of them, witnesses said.
The attack, which occurred on Keren Hayesod street in central Jerusalem, was carried out by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man.
Yishai Avior told the station that he heard screaming and saw three people on the ground bleeding. Two of the injured in serious condition were evacuated to hospital.
In the past, the march has been a focal point of tensions between Israel’s mostly secular population and the minority of ultra-Orthodox Jews in the area, who object to public displays of homosexuality.
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Oded Fried, the head of a leading gay rights group, said the event would continue despite the attack. “Freedom of individual choice is a basic value in Israel”.
