Simchat Torah Attack in Djerba, 1985

El Ghriba Synagogue
Djerba, Tunisia
7 October, 1985

On Simchat Torah, the community on the island of Djerba hired a local policeman to guard the synagogue during services. The locals were concerned that an Israeli raid on a local PLO headquarters, part of Operation Wooden Leg, might provoke violence.

Rather than protect the worshipers, the security guard waited until services were underway and then open-fired on the Jews inside. Three people were killed. (UPI) One of those killed was Yehudit Bucharis, whose nephew Yoav Hattab was murdered thirty years later in the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris. (ynet) Yehudit's remains were brought for burial in Israel in 2014.

In 2002, the synagogue was attacked again, when an Al-Qaeda terrorist drove a truck full of explosives into the building, killing 21 tourists.

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