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00:00 now bring in France 24's Oliver Fary from our International Affairs desk.
00:04 Oliver, how much do we know about this attack?
00:06 Well, we do not know the identity of the perpetrator, but Tunisia's Ministry of Defence said that
00:12 he was a member of the country's maritime guard.
00:15 He killed a fellow policeman before taking his ammunition and heading to the Al-Kariba
00:20 synagogue which is Tunisia's oldest Jewish temple and indeed is one of the world's oldest
00:25 as well, a temple having been there for over 2,000 years on the same site.
00:32 He shot dead four people, two civilians and two members of the security forces.
00:37 This is later at the temple.
00:39 A further five were wounded in a shootout before the gunman was killed.
00:44 Now, two of those were Jewish pilgrims there for the annual Lag Ba'omer pilgrimage which
00:50 takes place on the 33rd day of Passover.
00:53 One was a 46-year-old Frenchman who had dual Tunisian nationality, a kosher butcher from
00:58 Marseille by the name of Benjamin Haddad and his cousin who is 30 years old, Aviel Haddad,
01:05 a jeweler originally from Jerboa but now living in Israel.
01:09 The attack sparked panic among those in attendance.
01:12 About 5,000 Jewish pilgrims were there, many of them having come from overseas.
01:17 Some reported a state of confusion because they probably did expect, given that there
01:21 was a security presence, that they were safe and no doubt the fact that the perpetrator
01:26 was uniformed and he was a policeman caught the guards short there.
01:31 It's not yet known if the motive for the attack is anti-Semitism or terrorism but given the
01:37 target and also given the timing on a major Jewish festival, it's quite likely there was
01:43 an anti-Semitic nature to the shooting.
01:46 And Oliver, this is not the first time a synagogue has come under attack.
01:49 Yes, in fact, this particular synagogue, El Griga, has been attacked twice.
01:56 The first was in October 1985 during another religious festival, the Simchat Torah, and
02:02 the perpetrator then was also a policeman.
02:04 He killed three worshippers at the time.
02:06 One of the dead was a five-year-old boy, a nephew of René Trabelsi who later became
02:12 Tunisia's tourism minister and he was himself present at the synagogue during last night's
02:17 attack as well.
02:18 A further attack was in 2002 in April when 21 people, including 14 German tourists, were
02:26 killed when a truck exploded outside the synagogue.
02:29 Responsibility for that attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda and it was later found to have
02:33 been planned by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was named as one of the chief architects of
02:39 the September 11th attack seven months before that.
02:42 The synagogue, being Tunisia's oldest, is a temple that is very much central to the
02:50 country's Jewish community.
02:52 That has greatly diminished over the past 70 years.
02:55 There used to be about 100,000 but many of them have immigrated to France or Israel since
03:02 then.
03:03 There's now about 1,500, most of whom are based in Jarba itself.
03:10 Now antisemitism in Tunisia is not quite as widespread as in other parts of the Arab
03:14 world but the community, being small, is quite vulnerable at the same time.
03:20 Tunisia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.
03:23 Israeli tour groups are allowed to enter the country for pilgrimages such as Lag Ba Omar.
03:29 Tunisia has been hit badly by terrorist attacks in recent years.
03:33 In 2015 there were separate jihadist attacks on the Bardo National Museum in Tudus and
03:38 a hotel in the coastal city of Sousse.
03:40 They targeted both tourists, foreign tourists and Tunisians and that has badly affected
03:46 Tunisia's tourism sector which the country greatly depends on.
03:50 The pandemic has delivered another blow.
03:53 Things had seemed to have improved over the past year or so but this is probably going
03:57 to make things look difficult again, especially with the summer season coming.
04:03 Just kicking off.
04:04 Indeed.
04:05 Oliver, thank you very much for that.
04:06 Oliver Farry there.
04:06 of a fairy there.