Tel Aviv police on Wednesday arrested three suspects they believe were involved in the fatal shooting at the Bar Noar LGBT youth center in 2009 that left two dead and 15 wounded.
In a briefing with reporters on Wednesday night, Tel Aviv Police Commander Bentzi Sau said that in the afternoon detectives from the YAMAR investigative unit arrested three suspects they believe were involved in the shooting.
Sau would not give any further details about the case, which remains under a gag order.
He did confirm however, that the suspects are Jewish and that they have ruled out a nationalist motive in the shooting. The three will be brought in to the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Thursday morning for a remand extension.
The update was made to reporters only after police notified the families of the victims of the shooting.
Wednesday's arrests follow a previous breakthrough made by police late last year, which was announced by then Tel Aviv police commander Aharon Aksel in a conference call to reporters. That breakthrough also remains under a gag order.
On Wednesday, Sau said that despite the dramatic announcement, police have many hours of investigative work left, and the public shouldn't expect an indictment right away.
At around 11 pm on August 1, 2009, a masked gunman entered the basement of the Bar Noar center on Nachmani Street and opened fire with a pistol, taking the lives of Nir Katz, 26, a volunteer and counselor at the center, and Liz Triboshi, 16. A further 15, most of them minors, were also injured.
The murders shocked Israel's gay community and the country as a whole and cracking the case has been a major focus of Tel Aviv police for the past four years.