A soldier opens fire on the island of Djerba, in Tunisia, for still unknown reasons. And it’s a massacre: the dead are at least 4, including the assailantabout ten wounded.
It all happened on Tuesday evening near the Ghriba synagoguewhere an annual Jewish pilgrimage was being held. According to an initial reconstruction of the facts, a member of the National Guard in force at the naval center of the island killed one of his colleagues with the service weapon, then tried to enter the synagogue and started shooting at the security units on the spot, who returned fire. The area has been put on alert, people urged to seek shelter.
The dead are therefore the assailant himself, another soldier and two civilians – including a French citizen. The injured would be at least ten.
The Tunisian Interior Ministry reports that the interior and exterior of the synagogue have been secured and that the authorities are continuing to search to discover “the reasons for this cowardly attack”.
The Ghriba Synagogue – according to legend – is around 2500 years old but was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century on the site of the previous 6th century building. It is located in the center of the island of Djerba, where one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Mediterranean is based, well integrated in a Muslim majority country. The pilgrimage underway at these hours attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. To access it you have to undergo various security checks, especially after nn 2002 the place was the object of a bloody attack later claimed by the local wing of Al Qaeda: a truck was blown up at the entrance, killing 20.
