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Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns
A French Jewish woman prays inside the historic Ghriba synagogue in the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, during the annual Jewish pilgrimage on May 15, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 15 May 2025

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns
  • The pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, Africa’s oldest, has in the past drawn thousands of pilgrims from Europe, Israel and beyond
  • This year’s activities were restricted to indoor events at the place of worship

DJERBA, Tunisia: Only about 30 people turned up Thursday at this year’s Jewish pilgrimage on Tunisia’s island of Djerba amid safety concerns following a deadly 2023 attack and as the war in Gaza rages on.

The pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, Africa’s oldest, has in the past drawn thousands of pilgrims from Europe, Israel and beyond, attracting international and local tourists as well.

But after a 2023 deadly attack on the synagogue that killed two worshippers and three police officers, fewer pilgrims have been turning out to make the pilgrimage.

“It has been difficult for people to come, given what’s happening in the world,” Rene Trabelsi, the event organizer, told AFP.

“The pilgrimage has gone through many difficult periods in its history,” he said.

This year’s activities were restricted to indoor events at the place of worship.

“In 30 years, I have never seen the Ghriba synagogue so empty,” said Khoudhir Hanya, the synagogue’s manager.

“Usually even a week beforehand, pilgrims begin to arrive — sometimes up to 1,000 people.”
Earlier this month, a knife attack injured a local Jewish jeweller, but Trabelsi said it was unclear whether it was motivated by anti-Semitism, as authorities have not provided further details.

The pilgrimage is at the heart of Jewish tradition in Tunisia, where only about 1,500 members of the faith still live — mainly on Djerba. Many have left for Israel and France.

Organizers say more than 5,000 people, mostly from abroad, attended the pilgrimage in 2023, whereas up to 8,000 pilgrims had attended in previous years.

Security at the synagogue had already been tightened after previous attacks.

A suicide truck bombing in 2002, claimed by Al-Qaeda, killed 21 at the synagogue, and another attack in 1985 killed four worshippers and a police officer.


Syria ‘will give UN inspectors immediate access to suspected former nuclear sites’

Syria ‘will give UN inspectors immediate access to suspected former nuclear sites’
Updated 42 sec ago

Syria ‘will give UN inspectors immediate access to suspected former nuclear sites’

Syria ‘will give UN inspectors immediate access to suspected former nuclear sites’
  • Grossi describes new govt as ‘committed to opening up to international cooperation’

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new government has agreed to give inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog access to suspected former nuclear sites immediately, the agency’s head said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, spoke in an interview in Damascus, where he met with President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and other officials.

He also said Al-Sharaa expressed an interest in pursuing nuclear energy for Syria in the future, adding, “Why not?”

The agency’s aim is “to bring total clarity over certain activities that took place in the past that were, in the judgment of the agency, probably related to nuclear weapons,” Grossi said. 

He described the new government as “committed to opening up to the world, to international cooperation” and said he is hopeful of finishing the inspection process within months.

An IAEA team in 2024 visited some sites of interest while former President Bashar Assad was still in power. 

Since the fall of Assad in December, the IAEA has been seeking to restore access to sites associated with Syria’s nuclear program.

Syria under Assad is believed to have operated an extensive clandestine nuclear program, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir Ezzor province.

The IAEA described the reactor as being “not configured to produce electricity” — raising the concern that Damascus sought a nuclear weapon there by producing weapons-grade plutonium.

The reactor site only became public knowledge after Israel, the Middle East’s only nuclear power, launched airstrikes in 2007, destroying the facility. Syria later leveled the site and never responded fully to the IAEA’s questions.

Grossi said inspectors plan to return to the reactor in Deir Ezzor and three other related sites. 

Other sites under IAEA safeguards include a miniature neutron source reactor in Damascus and a facility in Homs that can process yellow-cake uranium.

“We are trying to narrow down the focus to those or that one that could be of a real interest,” he said.

While there are no indications that there have been releases of radiation from the sites, he said, the watchdog is concerned that “enriched uranium can be lying somewhere and could be reused, could be smuggled, could be trafficked.”

He said Al-Sharaa had shown a “very positive disposition to talk to us and to allow us to carry out the activities we need to.”

Apart from resuming inspections, Grossi said the IAEA is prepared to transfer equipment for nuclear medicine and to help rebuild the radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, and oncology infrastructure in a health system severely weakened by nearly 14 years of civil war.

“And the president has expressed to me he’s interested in exploring, in the future, nuclear energy as well,” Grossi said.

Grossi said Syria would most likely be looking into small modular reactors, which are cheaper and easier to deploy than traditional large ones.

Regarding the ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran for a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program, Grossi said he has been in “constant contact” with the parties.

“They are negotiating; it’s not us, but it is obvious that the IAEA will have to be the guarantor of whichever agreement they come to,” he said.


Jordanian king holds talks on Gaza with UK prime minister

Jordanian king holds talks on Gaza with UK prime minister
Updated 8 min 13 sec ago

Jordanian king holds talks on Gaza with UK prime minister

Jordanian king holds talks on Gaza with UK prime minister
  • King Abdullah II emphasizes need for greater international effort to end war
  • Keir Starmer reaffirms commitment to two-state solution

LONDON: King Abdullah II of Jordan and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met in London on Thursday to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

The king emphasized the need for greater international effort to end the war in Gaza and ensure the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave, the Petra news agency reported.

He also highlighted the importance of the UK’s efforts to achieve stability and peace in the region.

The king warned of the “dangers” posed by Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank and attacks on Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem and reaffirmed Jordan’s stance against the displacement of Palestinians.

Starmer said the only long-term solution to the conflict was the two-state solution and that London and Amman would continue to work together to achieve a ceasefire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid.

King Abdullah was accompanied on his visit by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Director of the King’s Office Alaa Batayneh and Jordan’s Ambassador to the UK Manar Dabbas.

Safadi also had a meeting with his UK counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy.


EU official says $183m Syria recovery package ‘clear message’ of support

EU official says $183m Syria recovery package ‘clear message’ of support
Updated 11 min 54 sec ago

EU official says $183m Syria recovery package ‘clear message’ of support

EU official says $183m Syria recovery package ‘clear message’ of support
  • Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani will attend a ministerial meeting involving almost a dozen Mediterranean countries in Brussels on June 23

DAMASCUS: Visiting EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica said on Thursday that a €175 million (nearly $183 million) package for Syria was a “clear message” of support for its reconstruction.

Suica announced the package in Damascus on Wednesday, saying it would focus on sectors including energy, education, health, and agriculture, helping rebuild Syria’s economy, support its institutions, and promote human rights.

“I came here ... with a clear message that we are here to assist and help Syria on its recovery,” Suica said in an interview on Thursday.

“We want that reconstruction and recovery will be Syria-owned and Syria-led,” she said, on the first visit by an EU commissioner since a transitional government was unveiled in late March.

“We want to see Syria be a regular, normal, democratic country in the future,” she added.

Syria has been navigating a delicate transition since Bashar Assad was ousted in December after nearly 14 years of civil war.

The EU announced last month it would lift economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help its recovery.

“This is a pivotal moment — a new chapter in EU-Syria relations,” Suica said on X, calling her meeting with President Ahmad Al-Sharaa “constructive.”

Like Syria’s neighbors, Western governments are keen to steer it onto the road to stability after the war triggered an exodus of millions of refugees.

Refugee returns should be “safe, voluntary and dignified,” Suica said.

The EU has not designated Syria as a safe country for returns “because we don’t want to push people to come here and then they don’t have a home,” she said.

The EU last month sanctioned three Syrian groups and two of their leaders for human rights abuses over their alleged involvement in sectarian massacres in the coastal heartland of the Alawite minority, to which Assad belongs, in March.

“We cannot pronounce one part of Syria safe and another not,” Suica said, noting that designating Syria a safe country needs “unanimity among 27 European member states.”

She said Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani would attend a ministerial meeting involving almost a dozen Mediterranean countries in Brussels on June 23.

A statement released on Wednesday said that the European Commission was “actively pursuing the integration of Syria into several key initiatives with its Mediterranean partner countries.”

“We want to see Syria united and inclusive, Suica said. 

“This is a process. It will happen step by step.”


UN Security Council condemns ongoing Houthi detentions of aid workers and diplomats

UN Security Council condemns ongoing Houthi detentions of aid workers and diplomats
Updated 38 min 53 sec ago

UN Security Council condemns ongoing Houthi detentions of aid workers and diplomats

UN Security Council condemns ongoing Houthi detentions of aid workers and diplomats
  • On anniversary of the first detentions, council members call for immediate and unconditional release of all those being held
  • They express deep concern about additional recent arrests and condemn death of a World Food Program employee in Houthi custody on Feb. 10

NEW YORK CITY: The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned the continued detention by the Houthis in Yemen of UN staff, aid workers and representatives of civil society, and called for their immediate and unconditional release.

In a statement marking the first anniversary of a wave of detentions that began in June 2024, council members expressed deep concern over additional recent arrests and the prolonged captivity of workers from the UN, international and national nongovernmental organizations, and diplomatic missions.

They also condemned the death of a World Food Program employee in Houthi custody on Feb. 10.

The Eid Al-Adha holiday, which began on Thursday evening, will be especially painful for those who are detained and their families, council members said, and they warned that the continuing abductions create fear among humanitarian workers.

Threats to those helping to deliver aid are “unacceptable” and make an already dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen even worse, they added.

The 15-member council called on the Houthis to respect the principles of international humanitarian law, including the provision of “safe, rapid and unimpeded” access to allow humanitarian assistance to reach civilians in need.

Members welcomed ongoing efforts by the UN to secure the safe release of all detainees and reaffirmed their support for the UN’s special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg.

They reiterated their commitment to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen, and backed a “negotiated, inclusive, Yemeni-led and Yemeni-owned” political process in the country under the auspices of the UN.

The conflict in Yemen has raged since 2014, when the Houthis seized control of the capital, Sanaa, triggering a civil war that has resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.


Israel’s aid restrictions deny Palestinian children ‘chance in life,’ WFP chief says

Israel’s aid restrictions deny Palestinian children ‘chance in life,’ WFP chief says
Updated 50 min ago

Israel’s aid restrictions deny Palestinian children ‘chance in life,’ WFP chief says

Israel’s aid restrictions deny Palestinian children ‘chance in life,’ WFP chief says
  • Cindy McCain urges Israel to allow aid into the territory ‘at scale’

LONDON: Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid to Gaza means a generation of Palestinian children are being denied a chance in life, the head of the UN’s World Food Program said on Thursday.

Israel imposed a full blockade on food and relief supplies from entering the territory on March 2, before breaking a ceasefire and resuming its devastating military operation a few weeks later.

Limited supplies were allowed back in late last month but nowhere near to the scale required, WFP Director Cindy McCain told Sky News.

“It’s very, very important that people realize that the only way to stave off malnutrition, catastrophic food insecurity and, of course, famine would be by complete and total access for organizations like mine,” she said.

“We’re looking at a generation of children that won’t have a chance in life because they haven’t had the proper nutrients. Right now, we’re looking at over 500,000 people within Gaza that are catastrophically food insecure.”

The resumption of limited aid supplies came after Israel built new distribution hubs in the territory run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a newly formed US organization.

Previously, the UN’s Palestinian refugees agency UNRWA and the WFP were in charge of distributing aid in the territory. But Israel has banned UNWRA from working in Gaza and has taken control of the aid system.

Scores of Palestinians have been shot dead this week as they attempted to access one of the new aid hubs in the south of the territory.

McCain said the new system was not allowing enough aid to get into Gaza to feed its malnourished population.

Speaking to “The World with Yalda Hakim,” she urged Israel to allow international aid to “get in at scale.”

“We need safe, unfettered, clear access all the way in and we're not getting that right now,” she said.

Her comments came as the GHF resumed its operations on Thursday after shutting down on Wednesday in response to the number of deaths near its hub.

McCain is the latest aid agency chief to deliver strongly worded condemnation of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, where its military operation has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

On Wednesday, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric said Gaza had become “worse than hell on earth.”