picture released, Facebook
Palestinian police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a 25-year-old man whose headless body was found in the occupied West Bank.
Activists defending gay rights in Israel, where Ahmed Abu Markhiya had sought refuge, said he had received threats for being gay.
A video from the site of the killing in Hebron has spread widely through social media, and this has raised many questions regarding the motives for the crime, but the police say that nothing has been confirmed.
It is not yet clear how Abu Markhiya reached the city.
Israeli rights groups representing gays and transgender people, who are symbolized by the LGBT community, said that the Palestinian youth had spent the past two years in Israel waiting for a decision on his asylum application to travel abroad, following receiving death threats from his community.
And Israeli media quoted friends of the victim as saying that he was kidnapped and taken to the West Bank.
However, members of his family said he regularly visited Hebron to see them and work, and described allegations of motive as rumours.
Homosexuality is not accepted within the socially and religiously conservative sectors among Palestinians and Israelis.
Reports indicate that he left his city on a humanitarian permit in the hope of traveling to Canada.
Activist Natalie Farah told the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, that Mr. Abu Markhiya is known and loved and that an entire community is “crying now”.
“Everyone is afraid,” she added.
Palestinians also expressed their dissatisfaction with the beheading.
The Times of Israel quoted an announcer on Radio Al-Karama as saying that the crime “crossed every red line in our society, whether in terms of morals, customs or basic humanity.”
The newspaper said that regarding 90 Palestinians belonging to the LGBT community are currently living as asylum seekers in Israel, following experiencing discrimination in their original communities.
They have only been allowed to look for work in Israel since July.
