Paris “condemns with the greatest firmness” this attack in Tunisia. Two worshipers who were taking part in a Jewish pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, on the eastern island of Djerba, were killed on Tuesday evening in an attack led by a gendarme who also killed two colleagues before being shot down, the interior ministry said. A Frenchman is among the victims. The Express report on this attack.
What happened ?
The attack took place in two stages, the ministry said in a statement. The gendarme who fired first shot and killed one of his colleagues and seized his ammunition. Then he went to the outskirts of the synagogue where he opened fire on the security forces ensuring the security of the place before being shot.
The attack came as hundreds of worshipers took part in an annual Jewish pilgrimage that was coming to an end Tuesday night at the synagogue. Security forces “surrounded the synagogue and secured everyone inside and around it,” according to the Interior Ministry. “Investigations are continuing to elucidate the motives for this cowardly attack,” added the ministry, refraining at this stage from mentioning a terrorist attack.
Who are the victims ?
Two “visitors” to the synagogue were killed by gunfire from the assailant before he was shot, and four others were injured and evacuated to a hospital, the ministry added. The Tunisian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the two dead were “a 30-year-old Tunisian and a 42-year-old Frenchman”, without providing their identities.
Another gendarme was also killed and five others injured by the assailant’s shots, according to the Interior Ministry.
Why was this building targeted?
According to organizers, more than 5,000 Jewish pilgrims, mainly from abroad, took part in the Ghriba pilgrimage this year, which resumed last year after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organized on the 33rd day of Passover, the Ghriba pilgrimage is at the heart of the traditions of Tunisians of the Jewish faith, who are only 1,500, mostly settled in Djerba, against 100,000 before independence in 1956.
This synagogue, the oldest in Africa, had already been targeted in 2002 by a suicide truck bomb attack that killed 21 people.
What reactions?
Following the attack, the French Embassy in Tunis announced that it had opened “a crisis unit” and set up an emergency number. France condemned Wednesday “with the greatest firmness”, an “odious” act, according to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The United States deplores the attack in Tunisia, which coincides with the annual Jewish pilgrimage that draws worshipers from around the world to the Ghriba Synagogue. We express our condolences to the Tunisian people and commend the swift action of the security forces Tunisians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller tweeted.