Gay Palestinian living in Israel under asylum beheaded in West Bank

A gay Palestinian man living in Israel under asylum was murdered and beheaded on Wednesday in the West Bank city of Hebron. 

The 25-year-old victim, identified as Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh, was living in Israel for the past two years as an asylum-seeker after authorities acknowledged his life would be in danger in Palestinian territory, according to Hebrew media.

An unnamed suspect was arrested by the West Bank’s Palestinian Authority (PA) police near the scene of the crime soon after it was committed. The suspect recorded the act in a video that he uploaded to social media.

Rita Petrenko, founder of Al-Bayt Al-Mukhtalif, an NGO for the empowerment of the Arab LGBTQ+ community, said she helped arrange Abu Murkhiyeh’s asylum papers in preparation for his eventual resettlement in Canada.

To the best of her knowledge, Petrenko said Abu Murkhiyeh had not returned to the West Bank since his asylum out of fear of what his estranged family and other community members might do to him.

It was not immediately clear how or why he ended up in Hebron, and the PA is currently interrogating the suspect to determine his guilt and motive.

Lu'ay Arziqat, a PA police spokesman, called the beheading a “new kind of crime in Palestine” and urged people to refrain from sharing the video on social media.

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said he was "shocked and horrified" by the murder. "Violence against LGBTQI+ human beings is unacceptable," he said on Twitter.