The attacker killed two guests to Djerba’s Ghriba Synagogue and a safety guard earlier than being shot useless.
Two guests, a safety guard, and their attacker have been killed close to a synagogue on Tunisia’s Djerba island that attracts tons of of Jews from Europe and Israel throughout an annual pilgrimage annually.
Djerba – a vacation vacation spot off the coast of southern Tunisia, 500 km (300 miles) from the capital Tunis – is house to Africa’s oldest synagogue and the annual pilgrim has had tight safety since al-Qaeda attacked the non secular website in 2002 with a truck bomb that killed 21 Western vacationers.
The assault on Tuesday was staged by a guard affiliated with Tunisia’s Nationwide Guard naval centre within the city of Aghir on Djerba, who first used his weapon to shoot a colleague and seize his ammunition earlier than shifting in direction of Ghriba Synagogue, the Inside Ministry stated in a press release.
The attacker fired indiscriminately at safety models positioned close to the synagogue, killing two guests and a safety officer, in addition to injuring 5 safety guards and 4 guests.
Safety forces then shot the attacker useless, the Inside Ministry stated. The injured embody six members of the safety forces and 4 civilians, the ministry stated.
The Tunisian overseas ministry stated one of many guests killed was French and one was Tunisian.
The sound of gunshots on the synagogue had sparked panic among the many tons of of pilgrims, in response to native media.
“The Ministry of the Inside confirms that the temple has been cordoned off and…all these inside and out of doors the temple have been secured, and analysis is continuous to seek out out the explanations for this treacherous and cowardly assault,” the ministry stated in a press release.
In keeping with organisers, greater than 5,000 Jewish devoted, principally from abroad, participated on this yr’s pilgrimage to Ghriba, which resumed in 2022 after two years of pandemic-related suspension.
Tunisia has no diplomatic ties with Israel, however Israelis are allowed entry to the nation as a part of organised excursions to the island for the pilgrimage.
Primarily Muslim Tunisia is house to one in every of North Africa’s largest Jewish communities. Although they now quantity fewer than 1,800 individuals, Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman occasions.
Gunmen killed scores of overseas vacationers in two separate assaults at a seaside resort and a Tunis museum in 2015.
Tunisia’s final important safety incident was an explosion focusing on police exterior the US embassy in 2020 that killed one officer. Two suicide blasts focused police exterior the French embassy in 2019, additionally killing one officer.
The US ambassador to Tunisia had visited the synagogue on Monday together with the US envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism, in response to a US embassy publish on Twitter.
