Ultra-orthodox Yishai Schlissel jailed for life for Jerusalem Gay Pride stabbing

Yishai Schlissel stabbed six people at the Gay Pride march in Jerusalem in 2015
(Image: AP)

An Israeli court has given a life sentence to a man who killed a teenager and wounded five other marchers at last year's Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem.

Yishai Schlissel, 40, an ultra-Orthodox Jew, said he had been doing God's will when he stabbed his victims.

He managed to infiltrate the parade three weeks after completing a 10-year sentence for a similar attack in 2005.

The court criticised the police, saying they had known the danger Schissel posed but failed to act properly.

Shortly after his release, he had lashed out at homosexuality in interviews and said the Jerusalem march needed to be stopped.

In anti-gay pamphlets, he asked Jews to "risk beatings or imprisonment" to act against the event.

A photographer captured the moment the man reached for his knife
(Image: AP)

He stabbed six people during the march before being arrested. Shira Banki, 16, later died in hospital.

Israeli media said Schlissel was initially turned away by police but managed to return to the parade by using side streets.

A police investigation last year called for the removal of six senior Israeli officers over the attack.

The Gay Pride event has long been a source of tension between Jerusalem's secular community and its Jewish Orthodox groups.