Tunis: Tote und Verletzte bei Anschlag auf Synagoge

Am Dienstag Abend eröffnete ein Bewaffneter das Feuer auf Besucher der Hauptsynagoge in Tunis. Dabei kamen sechs Menschen ums Leben.

Es ist dies der blutigste antisemitische Terrorattacke  in Tunesien seit Jahrzehnten . Dies geschah in einer Zeit, in der tausende Juden alljährlich nach Tunesien pilgern:

The attack, whose details are not all entirely known but which happened despite extraordinarily robust security arrangements, has sent a shockwave of hurt and consternation among the members of the growing community of pilgrims to El Ghriba, Africa’s oldest still-running synagogue, and the larger circle of Tunisian Jews. It is also a major setback for the organizers and supporters of the pilgrimage, which is a rare example of the survival of Jewish-Arab kinship in an Arab country.

“The shots rang out minutes after I and most of the foreign Jews had left the synagogue for their hotels,” Saada told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. Making sure his parents, who had already returned to their hotel, were safe, Saada headed back in the direction of the synagogue to report on the situation for RCJ Radio, a French-Jewish radio station based in Paris.

Most tourists had already left the synagogue, which receives about 8,000 pilgrims annually on Lag B’Omer, when at least one assailant shot and killed Aviel and Benjamin Haddad, cousins living in Israel and France, respectively, as well as at least one security officer, Saada said. Another security forces officer died Wednesday from wounds sustained in the shootout with the perpetrator, Reuters reported.

The worshipers who remained around the synagogue when the attack happened, Saada said, were almost exclusively from the local Jewish community of several hundred people, who are among only a handful of extant Jewish communities in the Arab world.

“A colorful, folkloristic custom full off hope and joy has turned into tragedy,” said Saada, 41, who heads the news department of RCJ Radio. “It’s a major setback for the pilgrimage, which is a source of pride for authorities and an important and rare link connecting Tunisian Jews and their descendants from across the world to their country of origin.”