Terror attack at Bondi Beach kills Hanukkah celebrants

Key topics:Gunmen attack Bondi Beach Hanukkah crowd, killing 15 and injuring 27.Hero bystander subdues shooter; incident sparks debate on gun laws.Rising antisemitism in Australia highlighted, tensions with Israel grow..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Michael Heath and Swati Pandey.At around 6:47 p.m., as the sun began to fade on a warm Sunday afternoon at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, the first gunshots rang out. After a moment of confusion, panicked beach goers began to sprint across the sand, unsure where exactly the shots were coming from. Soon two gunmen were spotted in a parking lot close to a grassy area just off the beach, where more than 1,000 members of the Jewish community in Australia had gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah.Mobile-phone footage captured two men dressed in dark clothing firing what appeared to be long-barreled rifles as bystanders screamed, with puffs of smoke rising into the air after each shot. One video showed a heroic member of the public charging one of the shooters from behind, wrestling the gun away from him and laying it on the ground..Read more:.Urgent calls for ceasefire in Gaza after aid convoy “massacre”: Marc Champion.Witnesses told local television stations they heard about 40-50 gunshots. Videos of the aftermath showed first responders seeking to resuscitate the wounded, as victims lay deceased on the ground nearby. Soon the area was surrounded by police cars and ambulances.Several hours later, law enforcement confirmed that at least 12 people were killed and 29 others injured, including two police officers, in what they officially designated a terrorist attack. In an address to the nation on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the shooting “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians” and “an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation.”“Australia will never submit to division, violence or hatred,” he added. “We will see justice done, and we will come through this together.”By Monday morning, the death toll of victims had risen to 15, with 27 people in hospital. New South Wales police said the shooters were a 50-year-old father who died in the attack, and his 24-year-old son, without disclosing their names. The father arrived as a student visa holder in 1998, police said without naming his country of origin, while the son was born in Australia. The gunmen were named as Naveed Akram and his father Sajid by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., citing law enforcement sources. The bystander who subdued one of the men was identified by local media as Ahmed el Ahmed, a 43-year-old father-of-two from south Sydney, who was shot twice and is being treated in the hospital. He was praised around the world for his bravery, including by US President Donald Trump, who hailed the US-Australia relationship and called it “a terrible situation going on over there.”.The Bondi Beach massacre marks the deadliest terrorist attack in Australia’s history, and the most fatal mass shooting since a lone gunman killed 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania on April 28, 1996. That tragedy prompted lawmakers to implement sweeping gun control measures just weeks afterward. Already it’s becoming evident that Sunday’s bloodshed will likely lead to a similar policy debate, this time touching on everything from gun control to immigration and Australia’s relationship with Israel. Albanese has been criticized by the conservative opposition for months for failing to do enough to stem the tide of antisemitism in the country.In an emergency meeting of state and federal leaders on Monday, ministers agreed to strengthen gun laws by accelerating work on a National Firearms Register and limiting the number of firearms to be held by any one individual. The father was licensed to own six “longarms” weapons and was a gun-club member, police said, adding that he held a firearm permit for a decade..Read more:.Kagame denies Rwanda’s role in DRC despite UN evidence.A long-time backer of the Jewish state, Australia threw its full support behind Israel after Hamas’ deadly attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and abducted 250. Yet it wasn’t long before tensions over Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip began to simmer in Australia. The conflict has drawn mass demonstrations across the country, including a rally in August where tens of thousands marched across Sydney’s Harbour Bridge to protest the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That month, Albanese announced that Australia would formally recognize a Palestinian state, calling the decision “humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza.” The move was roundly criticized by Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Albanese of betrayal. In a statement after Sunday’s shooting, Netanyahu said one Israeli citizen was among the dead. He also had more harsh words for Australia’s leader, saying he warned Albanese earlier that the push for a Palestinian state “pours fuel on antisemitic fire.”“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia,” Netanyahu said on Sunday, addressing Albanese. “You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.”As in elsewhere around the globe, antisemitism has been on the rise in Australia ever since the initial attack by Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist group by the US and others. Australia saw a record 1,045 antisemitic incidents in 2024, up 26% from the previous year and more than double the average annual tally from 2018 to 2022, according to a report by Community Security Group, a not-for-profit organization in Australia dedicated to ensuring the safety of the Jewish community. After Sunday’s shooting, David Littleproud — leader of the National Party, which is part of the opposition coalition — said in a statement that “we cannot continue to ignore the rise in antisemitism that has been allowed to seep into Australia since 7 October, 2023.”Australia’s center-right has been fracturing since Albanese’s Labor Party won a landslide election victory in May, with the populist One Nation surging in opinion polls. The party, which favors tougher immigration policies, recently announced the defection of former Nationals leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce to its ranks, resulting in a further climb. .Read more:.The Economist: A horrific killing spree shakes Syria.In a Guardian Essential Poll released on Dec. 10, support for One Nation reached 17%, its highest tally ever. That amounted to half of Labor’s 34% and behind the center-right Liberal-National Coalition’s 26%. Australia will hold a state election in South Australia in March and one in Victoria in November — both traditionally liberal electorates where One Nation tends not to resonate as strongly. The next federal election is due in 2028.After Albanese’s remarks calling for the nation to unite, he faced pointed questions about whether his government had done enough to tackle antisemitism. .“Yes we have taken it seriously, and we’ve continued to act,” Albanese said on Sunday. “We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders. We’ve continued to take all the advice from the security agencies to put in place special measures, and will continue to do so.”Threats related to antisemitism have been on the rise. At a Senate hearing in February, Mike Burgess, the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said antisemitism had become one of the agency’s most pressing priorities.Then in August, Australia uncovered credible intelligence that Iran directed at least two antisemitic attacks in the country. It kicked out the Iranian ambassador as a result, the first such expulsion since World War II..Australia is one of the world’s most successful multicultural societies, though a post-pandemic surge in migrants has seen support for immigration wane. The 2021 census showed 3.2% of Australia’s population identified as Islamic. The nation’s Jewish population was estimated to be 116,967 in 2021, accounting for roughly 0.5% of Australians. Bondi, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is among key Jewish communities in the nation.At the northern end of Bondi Beach on Monday morning, less than 100 meters (328 feet) from the bridge where the attackers staged a final stand, police set up a taped perimeter. Nearby, people cried and hugged each other. Bouquets of flowers piled up against a fence and pairs of mental health first aiders mingled in the crowd, dressed in green bibs. Some onlookers were draped in the Israeli flag. News crews descended on the scene. “There are nights that tear at our nation’s soul,” Albanese said on Sunday. “In this moment of darkness, we must be each other’s light.”.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Terror attack at Bondi Beach kills Hanukkah celebrants

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