It happened four years ago this week on Aug. 1, 2009. It was a summer night, Saturday, about an hour before midnight, when a man broke into a club where gay youths would hang out. The guests were teenagers who had come out of the closet and went out to have a good time at the Bar No’ar club, located in the center of Tel Aviv. Some of them were still hiding their sexual orientation from their relatives, but they all felt protected and safe at the club.

The intruder, dressed in black and wearing a black mask, pulled out a gun and started shooting at the revelers. Terrified screams reverberated in the hall. The young people were downed one after the other, like a set of bowling pins. Some of them cried for their mothers and fathers. Alas, there was no one there to hear their cries.

The shooter was quick to flee, leaving 11 boys and girls lying on the floor behind him. Two were killed: Liz Trubeshi and Nir Katz. Another nine were injured, two of them maimed for life.

The event shook the entire country. Israelis, accustomed to frequent terrorist attacks, were beside themselves with grief and shock. Who would dare hit gay youths for no reason? Many were touched by the plight of the young victims, whose wounding led to the public exposure of their sexual orientation, even before some of their close relatives learned about it. Some of the injured youths had to cope with their injury on their own as their parents, stricken with shame, refused to visit them in the hospital. Feelings of loss, grief and embarrassment mingled together in a murder case that upset and obsessed the nation.