Twelve people died in the worst terrorist attack in Australia, when gunmen opened fire on Jews who had gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday night.
The shooting was a “targeted attack” against the Jewish community, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared at an evening news conference. He described the incident as an “act of malignant anti-Semitism and terrorism that has struck at the heart of our nation” and called for an uncompromising crackdown on anti-Semitism.
“We will eradicate it”said.
Australia’s Jewish population was estimated to be 116,967 in 2021, one of the 10 largest in the world. Bondi, andn the eastern suburbs of Sydney, it is one of the country’s key Jewish communities.
One of the gunmen died and the second is in critical condition in hospital, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters at a press conference, where he described the incident as a terrorist attack. At least 29 people, including two police officers, were injured and taken to Sydney hospitals, he added.
This is the deadliest mass shooting in Australia. since a lone gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, on April 28, 1996.
“There are nights that tear apart the soul of our nation,” Albanese said. “In this time of darkness, we must be the light of others.”
The gunmen opened fire shortly after 6:45 p.m. local time, mAs more than 1,000 people attended the Hanukkah event by the Sea on a warm summer afternoon.
One of the victims said he had recently arrived in Australia from Israel, where he had lived for 13 years, to help Sydney’s Jewish community deal with anti-Semitic incidents. Speaking to Channel Nine, with a bloodied face and bandaged head, he stated that the community would unite even more after the shootings.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. showed footage of two gunmen dressed in black shooting at people from a walkway near the beach. In another unconfirmed video, a bystander is seen tackling and disarming one of the gunmen, actions that New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called truly heroic, saying the intervention likely saved many lives.
An improvised explosive device was found in a vehicle linked to the deceased attacker, Police Commissioner Lanyon said. Police are also investigating whether there was a third attacker, he added.
Mike Burgess, director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organizationsaid the level of domestic terrorism remains “likely” despite Sunday’s incident.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said the shootings “are the result of the anti-Semitic massacre on the streets of Australia over the past two years.”adding that “the Australian government, which has received countless warning signs, must come to its senses!”
Speaking at an event recognizing the extraordinary achievements of immigrants to Israel at the presidential residence in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the shooting was a “cruel attack against Jews who went to light the first Hanukkah candle on Bondi Beach.”
Several synagogues in Australia, along with Jewish businesses and homeowners, have been targeted following the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
In October last year, two masked men set fire to Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Bondi after dousing it with accelerant. The following month, assailants painted anti-Israel graffiti and set fire to a vehicle in Woollahra, a suburb with a large Jewish community, damaging more than 10 cars and several buildings.
Last December, criminals broke into the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, Victoria, and spread accelerant in what police described as a probable terrorist attack. Days later, another attack with graffiti and arson targeted a street in Woollahra that the perpetrators chose because it was considered a Jewish area.
Almost at the same time, About 20 members of a neo-Nazi group gathered outside a Melbourne government building with a banner reading “Jews hate freedom.”
This year, Albanese said Australia uncovered information that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps led at least two of last year’s arson attacks, including the Bondi restaurant incidents and Melbourne synagogue, prompting Canberra to expel Iran’s ambassador, its first such move since World War II.
Firearm crimes
The Bondi attack has refocused attention on the shortcomings of Australia’s arms control framework, a system often cited internationally as a model. However, its implementation is still characterized by its uneven application.
A January report by the Australia Institute concluded that all states and territories did not meet the basic criteria for effective oversight, including transparent data reporting and limits on the number of firearms a person can legally own.
The Australia Institute report also showed how concentrated gun ownership has become: the average license holder owns more than four firearms, and two suburban Sydney residents own more than 300 each.
Using scorecards to rank jurisdictions on measures such as ownership boundaries and data availability, the Institute assessed New South Wales (Sydney headquarters) as the best-performing country on transparency, even as broader national deficiencies persist.
