A mourning celebration. Two faithful taking part in a Jewish pilgrimage and two gendarmes were killed on Tuesday evening by an agent of the Tunisian maritime guard who opened fire in front of the Ghriba Synagogue on the island of Djerba, announced the Ministry of the Interior. This synagogue, the oldest in Africa, had already been targeted in 2002 by a suicide truck bomb attack that killed 21 people.
A policeman and two synagogue “visitors” were killed by the assailant’s gunfire and four others were injured, the ministry said in a statement, which said one of the dead was a 42-year-old Frenchman.
The gendarme of the maritime guard first killed a colleague 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.
5,000 pilgrims
The attack came as hundreds of worshipers took part in the annual Jewish Ghriba pilgrimage which 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 reasons for this cowardly attack,” added the ministry, refraining at this stage from mentioning a terrorist attack.
According to organizers, more than 5,000 Jewish pilgrims, mainly from abroad, took part this year in the pilgrimage to the Ghriba, the oldest synagogue in Africa, which resumed last year after a two-year interruption due to the Covid-19 epidemic.