2023 Djerba synagogue shooting

On the evening of May 9, 2023, Wissam Khazri, a 30-year-old member of the Tunisian National Guard, fatally shot a colleague with a pistol at a naval center in Aghir, Djerba, and took the colleague's ammunition. Armed with an automatic weapon, he traveled roughly 20 km by quad bike to the El Ghriba Synagogue, Africa's oldest synagogue and the site of an annual Jewish pilgrimage that was, at the time, hosting a few hundred worshippers marking the conclusion of Lag BaOmer festivities. He parked near the synagogue and, after observing a nearby traffic police vehicle, opened fire indiscriminately on security units at around 8:13 p.m. Two worshippers who had sought cover behind a bus were killed, along with two police officers; one officer died at the scene and the second died later in hospital. Security forces surrounded and shot Khazri before he reached the synagogue entrance, roughly two minutes after his arrival, according to Tunisia's interior minister. Eight others were injured, including four civilians and four officers, one of whom was hospitalized in critical condition.

The two civilian victims were identified as cousins: a 30-year-old man of Israeli-Tunisian descent who worked as a goldsmith, and a 42-year-old man of French-Tunisian heritage who had traveled to Djerba for the pilgrimage. Tunisian authorities stated that the attack was premeditated and specifically targeted the synagogue, though they said they had not identified a motive. Aaron Zelin of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy assessed that the attack appeared to be an isolated, unsophisticated act, possibly carried out by a lone individual without broader organizational planning, in contrast to the coordinated 2002 al-Qaeda truck bombing of the same synagogue that killed 21 people.

President Kais Saied characterized the attack as a "criminal" act intended to harm Tunisia's tourism sector rather than an act of terrorism, and later denied that antisemitism was a motive, a framing that drew criticism from some international Jewish organizations and commentators. The Ministry of the Interior opened an investigation into the motive. The decision to transfer the bodies of the two Jewish victims to Tunis for autopsy drew protest from victims' families and the local Jewish community, who said they were prevented from performing customary religious observances. International reactions included condemnation from Israeli officials, French President Emmanuel Macron, the French anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (which opened its own investigation given the French victim), the U.S. State Department, and Jewish organizations including the European Jewish Congress and the Conference of European Rabbis.

On February 16, 2026, five people—including Khazri's fiancée and sister—were sentenced to up to 15 years' imprisonment on charges related to involvement in the attack. In 2026, the pilgrimage and religious activity at the synagogue were officially reinstated under heightened security, though international attendance remained low.