The president of Tunisia said on Wednesday that the country’s deadliest attack in years—a shooting at a synagogue on the island of Djerba that left five people dead—was the result of criminals looking to hurt the tourism industry.
The assailant, a member of the National Guard, murdered a coworker at a naval base on Tuesday before driving to the synagogue where a Jewish celebration was being held. There, he opened fire on police and attendees before being shot and killed.
Along with one police officer who passed away at the spot and another who passed away in the hospital on Wednesday, two Jewish cousins—one French and the other Israeli Tunisian—were also killed.
According to hospital authorities, four more police were hurt, one of them critically, along with four other people.
“The goal was to sow the seeds of discord and to hit the tourist season and the state,” President Kais Saied stated, expressing sympathy to the families of the victims and best wishes for the injured.
He did not mention the shooting’s targetting of the Jewish community or antisemitism, nor did he use the word “terrorism,” which he has occasionally used to describe the actions of his political rivals since he seized most of the country’s authority in 2021.
Tunisia, according to Saied, is “a land of tolerance and peaceful coexistence.”
France, the US, and Israel all expressed their sorrow.
As gunshots broke out, worshippers on the pilgrimage recounted a scene of fear as many sheltered in various synagogue chambers.
“Up until we heard a lot of gunshots, people were cheerful and dancing. Everyone sprinted off. Some hid in the other rooms, while others did so in my office. Peres Trabelsi, leader of the Jewish community in Djerba, remarked that there was a lot of anxiety.
According to Rene Trabelsi, the former tourism minister of Tunisia who planned the trip, the attacker was wearing body armor. He claimed that outside the synagogue, the two cousins had attempted to hide behind a bus.
He added that he and his family had been at the synagogue when the shooting started. “We heard the shots and knew it was related to an attack,” he claimed.
Hundreds of Jews from Europe and Israel frequently go to Djerba, a small island off the coast of Tunis, for the pilgrimage to Africa’s oldest synagogue.
Since al-Qaida extremists struck the synagogue in 2002 with a vehicle bomb, killing 21 Western visitors, the pilgrimage has been subject to strict security. One of the largest Jewish communities in North Africa, with over 1,800 members, is found in primarily Muslim Tunisia.
In a year when the government is looking for financial assistance to prevent a crisis in public finances, any impact on Tunisia’s tourism sector, a significant source of foreign money, will be attentively observed.
The tourism industry was severely damaged by significant attacks in 2015 that resulted in the deaths of numerous Western tourists, and it had just recovered when the COVID pandemic hit. Tunisians have been fleeing to Europe in large numbers due to economic problems.
