The gunman attempted to break into the synagogue while an annual pilgrimage was underway.
Two worshipers participating in a Jewish pilgrimage and members of the forces were killed last night when a Tunisian gendarme opened fire at a naval base and then in front of a synagogue in Ghriba, on the Tunisian island of Djerba (east). The announcement was made in the early hours today by the Ministry of the Interior of Tunisia.
According to the ministry, a guard and two “visitors” to the synagogue were killed in front of the place of worship by his gunfire, while nine other people – five policemen and four visitors – were wounded.
Earlier, the gendarme grabbed a gun and killed his colleague, before heading to the synagogue.
The attack was carried out during an annual pilgrimage that attracts many Jews, especially from Europe, but also from Israel.
According to the Tunisian Foreign Ministry, one of the “visitors” killed was a French citizen, the second Tunisian.
The attacker opened fire indiscriminately on security forces and visitors in front of the synagogue, before falling dead from security forces’ bullets, according to the interior ministry.
Authorities in Tunis have made no public assessment at this stage of the attacker’s motives.
In the past, jihadists have targeted both the pilgrimage island of Djerba, a popular tourist destination, and other locations in Tunisia.
In 2020, an explosion outside the US embassy resulted in the death of a police officer.
In 2019, two suicide bombers detonated the explosives they had planted outside the French embassy, ​​also killing a police officer.
In 2015, jihadists murdered dozens of tourists, launching attacks on a seaside resort and busy museum in Tunis.
The annual pilgrimage to Griba, home to Africa’s oldest Jewish synagogue, is made by hundreds of Jewish believers each year.
Security in Djerba has been much tightened since 2002, when an al-Qaeda attack killed 21 Western tourists.
About 1,800 Jews remain in Muslim Tunisia today. Their community is one of the largest in North Africa. Their presence in today’s Tunisia goes back to the days of the Roman Empire.
Just the day before yesterday, Monday, the US ambassador to Tunisia, Joey Hood, visited the synagogue in Djerba together with the US special envoy for combating anti-Semitism, Deborah Lipstadt.
Source :Skai
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