The 2009 Bar Noar Shooting

The attack

On the night of August 1, 2009, a person dressed in black and wearing a mask entered Bar Noar, a support and social center used by LGBT teenagers and young adults in Tel Aviv. The gunman fired repeatedly inside the center and fled on foot.

Nir Katz, a counselor, and 16-year-old Liz Troubishi were killed. Contemporary reports vary between ten and eleven wounded people, and later accounts note that some survivors were left with permanent injuries. Rather than choose a disputed total, this dossier records the minimum consistently supported figure: at least ten wounded.

An enormous investigation with no immediate answer

The shooting shocked Israel and generated one of the largest investigations undertaken by Tel Aviv police. Over the following years, investigators questioned more than a thousand people. Public officials and LGBT community leaders initially described the attack as a hate crime, but police had no identified gunman and no proven motive.

A weapon believed to be connected to the attack was later recovered, and in 2013 police announced a major breakthrough. That apparent solution did not survive judicial scrutiny.

The 2013 indictment

In July 2013, prosecutors charged Hagai Felician with two counts of murder and multiple attempted murders. The case relied heavily on information supplied by state witness Tarlan Hankishayev. At the time, police presented a personal-revenge theory and said the shooting was intended to target another man connected to the youth center.

Those claims were allegations in a prosecution, not findings from a completed trial. Crime by Region does not identify Felician as the Bar Noar gunman because that case was later withdrawn.

The prosecution collapses

Investigators eventually concluded that Hankishayev had supplied false or manipulated evidence. The state's case against Felician unraveled, and the murder charges were dropped in 2014. Felician, who had spent months in detention, later received substantial compensation from the state.

Prosecutors then pursued the former state witness for offenses connected to the false evidence. That separate misconduct does not establish who committed the 2009 murders.

Later leads did not resolve the shooting

In 2019, Israeli media reported that a known criminal approached police claiming to have information about the identity and motive of the shooter. Investigators examined the claim, but reliable later reporting continued to describe the murders as unsolved.

Reporting in 2022 again stated that police had not established who carried out the attack or why. No reliable source reviewed for this September 2026 update documents a subsequent murder conviction in the Bar Noar case.

Why motive remains unresolved

The location and victims made anti-LGBT hatred an immediate and understandable concern. Later police theories focused instead on revenge connected to an alleged personal offense. Because the prosecution supporting that theory collapsed after its central witness was discredited, neither explanation should be presented as a final factual conclusion.

The durable facts are narrower: two people were murdered, many others were shot, a suspect was charged and then cleared when the evidence failed, and no gunman has been successfully prosecuted.

Timeline

Current classification

The Bar Noar shooting is classified Unsolved / Partial. The victims and the attack are fully documented, but criminal responsibility has not been established through a sustainable prosecution. The failed 2013 case is part of the investigative history, not proof of guilt.

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