Tunisia names gunman, says attack premeditated
The minister described the shooting as a "cowardly criminal attack", but refrained from calling it a terrorist act.
A Tunisian national guardsman behind an attack that killed five people targeted the ancient synagogue on the Mediterranean island of Djerba in a premeditated act, Tunisia’s Interior Minister said last Thursday.
The mass shooting on Tuesday, May 9 sparked panic during an annual Jewish pilgrimage at the historic Ghriba synagogue, believed to be one of the world’s oldest Jewish shrines.
The gunman was shot dead after killing three police officers and two visitors, a French-Tunisian and an Israeli-Tunisian man, both of whom were Jewish. A dozen others were wounded.
Tunisian authorities named the gunman as Wissam Khazri, a member of the Tunisian National Guard affiliated with the naval centre in the island’s port town of Aghir. It was yet unknown if Khazri specifically targeted Jews.
Interior Minister Kamel Fekih pledged to “spare no effort to ensure the stability of the country” and to protect foreigners following the attack.
He said security forces killed the gunman within 120 seconds of arriving outside the synagogue. The minister described the shooting as a “cowardly criminal attack”, but refrained from calling it a terrorist act.
Israeli and Tunisian authorities and family members identified the civilian victims as cousins Aviel Haddad, 30, who held dual Tunisian-Israeli citizenship, and Benjamin Haddad, 42, who was French.
Fekih said the gunman killed one of his colleagues and seized his weapon at a national guard base on the coast of Djerba, then took a motorcycle to a schoolyard about 200 metres from the synagogue, where hundreds of worshippers were present.
“He shot the first victim at about 8.13pm and then moved toward the security guards, who were protecting the area around the synagogue, opening fire indiscriminately in order to cause as many victims as possible,” he told reporters in Tunis.
He said that a spirit of “celebration quickly returned to the island of Djerba, a land of peace and tolerance, which is proof that the author failed to implement his plan”.
Tunisian President Kais Saied earlier sought to assure his compatriots and foreign visitors that “Tunisia will remain a safe country, despite the criminal attempts to destabilise it.”
The chair of the synagogue’s committee, Perez Trabelsi, was present during the attack and told the Associated Press of his terror.
“I was scared, as were most of the people gathered in the ‘oukala’, a large space adjacent to the synagogue. Everyone was panicked. Many took refuge in the rooms for fear of being hit by the shots that came from outside,” he said.
The synagogue attracted more pilgrims this year – around 6000 people from the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and beyond – than it had for some time, Trabelsi said. He said he was saddened that the pilgrimage to the site that is revered in Judaism “was spoiled by those who wish Tunisia harm”.
Jews have lived on Djerba, a picturesque island off the southern coast of Tunisia, since 500 BCE. Djerba’s Jewish population is one of North Africa’s biggest, although in recent years it declined to 1500, down from 100,000 in the 1960s.
In 2002, a truck bombing killed about 20 people at the entrance to the same synagogue during the annual Jewish pilgrimage. Al-Qaeda claimed that attack.
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed to keep up the fight “against antisemitic hatred”, and Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the bloodshed proves “evil and hatred are still there”.
Cohen spoke with Tunis Chief Rabbi Haim Bitan, and “told him that Israel stands alongside the community in this difficult hour”. He said he instructed ministry officials to provide all needed aid. Israel and Tunisia do not have formal diplomatic relations.
TIMES OF ISRAEL, AP
comments