Five people, including three security personnel, were killed in a gun attack near a synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba on Tuesday night.
Eight people, including four police officers, were injured in the incident close to Ghriba Synagogue — also known as the Djerba Synagogue — which is a popular place of pilgrimage.
Hundreds of people were in the area at the time of the attack, as the annual pilgrimage to the historic synagogue was drawing to a close for the night.
The country's Ministry of Interior said a guard affiliated to the Tunisian National Guard naval centre in the port town of Aghir killed a colleague and then headed for Ghriba Synagogue.
Once near there, he opened fire on security units. A police officer and two civilians were killed.
Security personnel shot dead the gunman before he could reach the synagogue, said officials.
A second police officer died on Wednesday morning as a result of injuries sustained in the shooting, state news agency Tap reported.
Two of the four injured officers remain in critical condition. One will be transferred to the Military Hospital in the capital Tunis after suffering a brain haemorrhage.
The civilians killed were cousins. Both were Tunisians — one also held French citizenship and the second had Israeli citizenship, said officials.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday morning they were “two Jewish cousins, one with Israeli citizenship and the other with foreign citizenship”.
The cousins were on their way to watch a European Champions League game at a nearby cafe when the assailant attacked, former Tunisian tourism minister Rene Trabelsi told Mosaique FM.
Tunisia's Interior Ministry confirmed that the synagogue had been cordoned off and the area secured.
“The search is continuing to find out the reasons for this treacherous and cowardly attack,” the ministry said.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the attack on Twitter on Wednesday morning.
“We express condolences to the Tunisian people and commend the rapid action of Tunisian security forces,” he said.
The French Foreign Ministry also reacted to the attack.
“France condemns this heinous act, perpetrated during the annual Jewish pilgrimage, and which painfully echoes the suicide attack that killed 21 people in this same synagogue in 2002,” the ministry said.
“We welcome the rapid intervention of the Tunisian security forces and we stand alongside Tunisia to continue the fight against anti-Semitism and all forms of fanaticism.”
The annual pilgrimage to Africa's oldest synagogue — said to date back 2,500 years — regularly draws hundreds of Jews from Europe and Israel to Djerba, a major holiday resort off southern Tunisia, about 500km from the capital, Tunis.
The pilgrimage site has been under tight security since Al Qaeda militants bombed the synagogue in 2002, killing 21 tourists.
Tunisia, a mostly Muslim country, is home to one of North Africa's largest Jewish communities.
Although there are now fewer than 1,800 members of the community, Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman times.
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How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
LAST-16 FIXTURES
Sunday, January 20
3pm: Jordan v Vietnam at Al Maktoum Stadium, Dubai
6pm: Thailand v China at Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: Iran v Oman at Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Monday, January 21
3pm: Japan v Saudi Arabia at Sharjah Stadium
6pm: Australia v Uzbekistan at Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
9pm: UAE v Kyrgyzstan at Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Tuesday, January 22
5pm: South Korea v Bahrain at Rashid Stadium, Dubai
8pm: Qatar v Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi
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Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
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Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
What drives subscription retailing?
Once the domain of newspaper home deliveries, subscription model retailing has combined with e-commerce to permeate myriad products and services.
The concept has grown tremendously around the world and is forecast to thrive further, according to UnivDatos Market Insights’ report on recent and predicted trends in the sector.
The global subscription e-commerce market was valued at $13.2 billion (Dh48.5bn) in 2018. It is forecast to touch $478.2bn in 2025, and include the entertainment, fitness, food, cosmetics, baby care and fashion sectors.
The report says subscription-based services currently constitute “a small trend within e-commerce”. The US hosts almost 70 per cent of recurring plan firms, including leaders Dollar Shave Club, Hello Fresh and Netflix. Walmart and Sephora are among longer established retailers entering the space.
UnivDatos cites younger and affluent urbanites as prime subscription targets, with women currently the largest share of end-users.
That’s expected to remain unchanged until 2025, when women will represent a $246.6bn market share, owing to increasing numbers of start-ups targeting women.
Personal care and beauty occupy the largest chunk of the worldwide subscription e-commerce market, with changing lifestyles, work schedules, customisation and convenience among the chief future drivers.
Skewed figures
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Results
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