Six People Killed In Tunisia's Sinagoge Shooting, President Kais Saied Accuses Criminals Wanting To Disrupt The Tourism Sector

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Tony Webster)

JAKARTA - Tunisian President Kais Saied on Wednesday blamed "criminals" for wanting to damage the tourism sector, in connection with the Singapore shooting on Djerba Island that killed six people in the country's deadliest attacks in recent years.

The perpetrator of the attack, a National Guard member, killed a colleague at a naval installation on Tuesday, then went to synagoge where an annual Jewish festival was underway, shooting at police and visitors, before he was shot dead.

Two Jewish cousins, one French-Tunisian and the other Israel-Tunisian, were killed, along with a policeman who died at the scene. Another was in hospital on Wednesday.

Four other policemen were injured, one critical, hospital sources said, along with four other visitors.

"The goal (shooting) is to sow the seeds of a dispute and to hit the tourist and state seasons," President Saied said, expressing his condolences to their families who were killed and hopes of recovery for those who were injured.

He did not refer to targeting shooters against the Jewish community or antisemitism and did not refer to the shooting as terrorism, a term he has sometimes used to describe the work of his political opponents since he seized large parts of power in 2021.

President Saied said Tunisia was a "tolerant country and peaceful coexistence".

Meanwhile, the congregation who attended the pilgrimage described the panic scene after the sound of gunfire was heard, as people tried to hide in various rooms in sinagoge.

"People were excited and dancing until we heard a lot of gunshots. Everyone ran away... some were hiding in my office and others in other rooms. There was a lot of fear," said Peres Trabelsi, head of the Jewish community Djerba.

The striker arrived on a quad motorcycle and wore a body shield, said Rene Trabelsi, the former Tunisian tourism minister who organized the pilgrimage, adding that the two dead cousins tried to hide behind the bus outside the synagoge.

"We heard gunshots and knew it was related to the attack," he said, adding he was in the sinagoge with his family when the shooting began.

It is known that the pilgrimage to Africa's oldest sinagoge regularly attracts hundreds of Jews from Europe and Israel to Djerba, which is located off the coast about 500 km (300 miles) from the capital Tunis.

This pilgrimage has had strict security since Al Qaeda militants attacked the synagoge in 2002 with a truck bomb, killing 21 Western tourists.

Tunisia itself, the majority of Muslim population, is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in North Africa, with about 1,800 Jewish citizens.

Meanwhile, any impact on Tunisia's tourism sector, the main source of foreign currencies, will be closely monitored in the year when the government is seeking financial assistance to prevent a public financial crisis.

The tourism business was hit hard by a major 2015 attack that killed a number of Western tourists, barely recovering before the COVID pandemic in 2019 and 2020. Economic misery has prompted a massive exodus of Tunisians to Europe.