Djerba Tunisia: Worshippers killed near Africa's oldest synagogue

Ghriba synagogue (file image)

Two worshippers and three security officers have been killed in a gun attack near Africa's oldest synagogue, on the Tunisian island of Djerba.

The attack took place during an annual pilgrimage to the island, which attracts Jewish visitors from Europe and Israel.

A guard reportedly shot dead his partner before opening fire on visitors and officers near the Ghriba synagogue before being killed himself.

His motivation was not clear.

The two dead worshippers were cousins.

They have been named by Israeli media as French national Benjamin Haddad, 42, and Aviel Haddad, 30, a dual citizen of Tunisia and Israel.

"They were shot - murdered in cold blood. They were just in the car park and were supposed to go in, in front of the entrance for the security check," relative Mordechai Madar told Israeli radio station 103FM.

Tunisia's former tourism minister René Trabelsi, who organised the pilgrimage and was inside at the time, said the two cousins had tried to hide behind a bus outside the synagogue, Reuters news agency reports.

"We heard the shots and knew it was related to an attack," he said.

Four other visitors and four security officers were also injured.

Video posted online, that has not been independently verified, showed visitors running as gunshots rang out.

"People were happy and dancing until we heard a lot of gunfire. Everyone ran away... some hid in my office and others in the other rooms. There was lots of fear," the head of Djerba's Jewish community. Peres Trabelsi, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

Tunisia's interior ministry said that investigations were continuing to establish the motive for the "cowardly" attack.

France's President Emmanuel Macron promised to continue fighting "against anti-Semitic hatred", while Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said the bloodshed proves "evil and hatred are still there".

More than 5,000 Jews participated in the 2022 pilgrimage to Ghriba, AFP reported, citing local organisers.

It is not the first time the 2,500-year-old synagogue has been targeted.

In 2002 a bomb attack, claimed by al-Qaeda Islamist militants, killed more than 20 people on the island.

The annual pilgrimage to Djerba - about 500km (310 miles) from the capital, Tunis - has had tight security since the bombing.

Tunisia is a majority-Muslim country, but Djerba is home to hundreds of Jews.

Tunisian Jews consider the synagogue the most sacred place of worship in Africa. According to tradition, the first synagogue on the site was built with a stone or gate brought from King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem after it was destroyed in 586BC.

Many Jews left mainland Tunisia for Israel following the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, and more when the synagogue in the capital Tunis was burned down during the 1967 Middle East conflict.