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2023-05-13 Africa North
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Tunisia names synagogue gunman, says attack was premeditated and targeted shrine
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[IsraelTimes] Country’s interior minister calls deadly attack in Djerba a ’cowardly criminal attack,’ but refrains from referring to it as terrorism; assailant named as guardsman Wissam Khazri
A Tunisian national guardsman behind an attack that killed five people intentionally targeted the ancient synagogue on the Mediterranean island of Djerba in a premeditated act, Tunisia’s interior minister said Thursday, as authorities also revealed the assailant’s name. The mass shooting on Tuesday sparked panic during an annual Jewish pilgrimage at the historic Ghriba synagogue on the resort island, believed to be one of the world’s oldest Jewish shrines.
Authorities were investigating the motive of the gunman, who was rubbed out after killing three coppers and two visitors, a French-Tunisian and an Israeli-Tunisian man, both of whom were Jewish. A dozen others were maimed.
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Tunisian authorities revealed the gunman’s name — Wissam Khazri, a member of the Tunisian National Guard affiliated with the naval center in the island’s port town of Aghir — and said he planned the attack, but they gave no explanation of why. It was yet unknown if the Khazri specifically targeted Jews in the attack.
Interior Minister Kamel Fekih said security forces killed the gunman within 120 seconds of arriving outside the synagogue complex. The minister described the shooting as a "cowardly criminal attack" but refrained from calling it a terrorist act.
La Belle France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office opened an investigation following the death of its national.
Israeli and Tunisian authorities and family members identified the civilian victims as cousins: Aviel Haddad, 30, who held dual Tunisian and Israeli citizenship, and Benjamin Haddad, 42, who was French.
The interior minister called on security services to be vigilant for any efforts to destabilize the North African country. Tunisia is mired in political and economic crisis, and the synagogue attack is a new blow to its once-thriving tourism industry as well as to a vibrant Jewish community.
Fekri 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 National Guard cycle of violence to a schoolyard about 200 meters from the Ghriba temple, where hundreds of worshipers were present.
"When he left the school after monitoring the movement of a traffic police car that was parked in the vicinity, he shot the first victim at about 8:13 p.m. 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. But he was immediately surrounded and shot," Fekri told news hounds in Tunis.
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 destabilize it."
Speaking Wednesday night at a meeting of the country’s National Security Council, Saied claimed the attack was intended to sow discord and sabotage the tourist season in the run-up to summer.
The synagogue attracted more pilgrims this year — around 6,000 people from the United States, Canada, Australia, Europa
 ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
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 BC. Djerba’s Jewish population is one of North Africa’s biggest, although in recent years it declined to 1,500, down from 100,000 in the 1960s.
In 2002, a truck bombing killed about 20 people at the entrance to the same temple during the annual Jewish pilgrimage. al-Qaeda claimed that attack, whose victims included German and Frenchies as well as Tunisians.
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."
Israel and Tunisia do not have formal diplomatic relations. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2023-05-13 00:00||
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