A Pakistani national is suspected in what one police official called a “terrorist incident” against a Jewish gathering at an Australian beach on the first night of Hanukkah in which at least 15 were killed Sunday, including a 12-year-old.
Another 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, including two officers and three children, after the attack at Bondi Beach, CBS News reported.
‘What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of anti-Semitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location, Bondi Beach, that is associated with joy, associated with families gathering, associated with celebrations, and it is forever tarnished by what has occurred last evening.’
On Monday morning local time, police said two gunmen — a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son — opened fire while the local Jewish community was celebrating the first night of Hanukkah, the network news outlet said.
The 50-year-old gunman died, and his son was hospitalized in “serious condition,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said, according to CBS News.
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The 24-year-old was identified as Naveed Akram, a Pakistani national based in Sydney, according to a U.S. intelligence briefing and a driver’s license provided by Australian police. Police previously said the deceased gunman was the son, but Lanyon later clarified that the father was shot and killed by police.
New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park said the death toll had risen from 12 to 16 overnight, including a 12-year-old child. Three other children are being treated in the hospital, he said.
“This is absolutely horrendous for the community broadly, but particularly the Jewish community. … What we saw last night was the worst of humanity, but at the same time, the very best of humanity,” Park told CBS News, which added that it is unclear if the number of fatalities or injuries included the gunmen.
The international organization Chabad, which represents a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, said one of its rabbis — Rabbi Eli Schlanger — was among the dead, the network news outlet said, citing the Associated Press.
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Called Hanukkah by the Sea, the event was held to mark the beginning of the Jewish holiday observed from sundown on Sunday until Monday, Dec. 22. More than 1,000 were at the beach when gunfire broke out, said Lanyon. He called the attack a “terrorist incident” and said the perpetrators used “long arms,” referring to long guns such as shotguns or rifles, to carry it out.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also characterized the attack as targeted, with Minns saying it “was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.” The prime minister said it was “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians.”
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of anti-Semitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location, Bondi Beach, that is associated with joy, associated with families gathering, associated with celebrations, and it is forever tarnished by what has occurred last evening,” Albanese said during a news conference Monday morning local time, the network news outlet noted.
Lanyon added to CBS News that police believed several improvised explosive devices were inside a vehicle at Campbell Parade — a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach — which officials discovered shortly after the shooting occurred; a rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a social media post said “the United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia,” the network news outlet reported.
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One video appeared to show someone wrestling with one of the suspected gunmen and taking his weapon from him, according to Minns, who paid tribute to that individual in some of his comments Sunday.
The video was recorded by a bystander along Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach. In it, a man jumped up from a crouched position behind a parked car and tackled the suspect, who had just fired his weapon toward something out of view.
Following a short struggle, the man disarmed the suspect, pushed him to the ground, and turned the weapon on him, at which point the suspect stood up and walked in the opposite direction. The man then lowered the weapon and raised his free hand in the air. Off to the side, one person appeared to be lying unresponsive on the sidewalk beside a different vehicle.
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Minns called the man — whom relatives named Ahmed al Ahmed, a fruit shop owner, to Australian media — a “genuine hero,” the network news outlet said.
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Mass shootings in Australia are rare. But researchers have recorded dramatic upticks in antisemitic incidents in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, along with spikes in hate incidents against Muslim groups.
In response, the Australian government appointed special envoys last year to address antisemitism and Islamophobia in its communities. However, attacks have continued to happen since then. In July, an arsonist set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, another major Australian city, seven months after a different synagogue in the same city was burned by criminals in a blaze that injured one worshipper.
This is a developing story; updates may be added.
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