Tunisian protestors throw stones towards security forces in Tunis' Djebel Lahmer district early on January 10, 2018. (photo credit: SOFIENE HAMDAOUI / AFP)
TUNIS - A Jewish school in southern Tunisia was hit by Molotov Cocktails during anti-government protests, witnesses said on Wednesday.
No one was hurt but the school suffered some light damage in the attack late on Tuesday during a violent protest against austerity measures in the tourist resort island of Djerba, the head of the Jewish community, Perez Trabelsi, told Reuters.
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#BREAKING overnight: Arson attack on a synafogue in.#Djerba, #Tunisia: No one was injured pic.twitter.com/dZzxHOn2sX
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Protests erupted in at least 12 towns across Tunisia on Monday, among them the tourist towns of Sousse and Hammamet, against price and tax rises imposed by the government to reduce its ballooning deficit and satisfy international lenders.
The main opposition party had hours earlier called for protests to continue until the government scrapped what it called an unjust 2018 budget including price and tax hikes.
In Tunis on Tuesday police fired tear gas in two districts and also fired gas at a crowd storming a supermarket of France's Carrefour, a witness said. No casualties were reported.
Fresh clashes also broke out in Tebourba, a town 40 km (25 miles) west of Tunis where one protester was killed on Monday, witnesses said, and soldiers could be seen there and in Jelma, a central town where clashes were also reported.
While Tunisia is widely seen as the only democratic success story among the nations where Arab Spring revolts took place in 2011, it has had nine governments since then and none of them have been able to tackle growing economic problems.
Europe is concerned about stability in Tunisia, partly because unemployment there has forced many young Tunisians to go abroad: The number of boats smuggling migrants to Italy has been rising and Tunisia has also produced the largest number of jihadists heading for battlefields in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Public anger has been building since Jan. 1, when the government raised the prices of petrol and other items and hiked taxes on cars, phone calls, internet usage and hotel accommodation as part of those economic reforms.
A year ago, the government agreed to a four-year loan program with the International Monetary Fund worth about $2.8 billion in return for economic reforms.
"Today we have a meeting with the opposition parties to coordinate our movements, but we will stay on the street and we will increase the pace of the protests until the unjust financial law is dropped," opposition Popular Front leader Hamma Hammami told reporters.
Adding to pressure on the government, Nourredine Taboubi, head of the labor union UGTT, demanded the minimum wage and aid for the poor be raised within a week, state news agency TAP said.
Prime Minister Youssef Chahed called for calm, saying the economy would improve this year. Chahed, who heads a coalition of Islamist and secular parties, has been under constant pressure from labor unions over the faltering economy.
"People have to understand that the situation is extraordinary and their country is having difficulties, but we believe that 2018 will be the last difficult year for the Tunisians," Chahed said.