An attack targeting a Jewish gathering at Bondi Beach on Sunday killed at least 15 people, including a 12-year-old, officials and police said. About 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, among them two officers and three children.
Police said two gunmen — a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son — opened fire while the local Jewish community marked the first night of Hanukkah. Authorities later said the 50-year-old gunman died and his 24-year-old son, identified as Naveed Akram, a Pakistani national living in Sydney, remained hospitalized in a coma. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Akram had been the subject of a roughly six-month investigation by Australia’s main intelligence agency in 2019 over suspected links to an alleged ISIS cell; that probe concluded he did not pose an apparent threat to public safety.
New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park said the death toll rose overnight, and that the victims included a 12-year-old. Officials had not publicly identified all victims; international Jewish group Chabad said one of its rabbis, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was among those killed. Schlanger had helped organize the Hanukkah event, called Hanukkah by the Sea. More than 1,000 people were on the beach when the shooting began, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.
Lanyon described the incident as a “terrorist incident” and said the attackers used long guns. Police reported finding several improvised explosive devices in a vehicle on Campbell Parade, the main street running parallel to Bondi Beach, and a bomb disposal team was on scene.
Prime Minister Albanese and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called the assault a targeted attack on Sydney’s Jewish community. “What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores,” Albanese said, saying the attack had tarnished the iconic, family-oriented location.
Video and images from the scene showed injured people being carried away on stretchers. Bystander footage appeared to capture someone wrestling with a suspected gunman and seizing his weapon. In the clip, a man jumps from behind a parked car, tackles the suspect after the suspect fires, disarms him, and pushes him to the ground. The suspect later stood and walked away. New South Wales officials praised the man, identified by relatives in Australian media as fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, as a hero.
International leaders condemned the attack. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a “terrorist attack” and denounced antisemitism. Officials from Israel, New Zealand, India, the United Kingdom, and several European countries issued similar statements of condemnation and condolence. King Charles and Queen Camilla said they were “appalled and saddened” by the “dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack.”
Mass shootings are rare in Australia, but researchers and officials say antisemitic incidents have risen in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing Gaza war, along with increases in hate incidents targeting Muslim communities. The Australian government appointed special envoys last year to address antisemitism and Islamophobia, but attacks have continued. In July, an arsonist set fire to a synagogue door in Melbourne, months after a separate synagogue in that city was burned in a blaze that injured a worshipper.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
