At least 11 people were shot and killed in an attack targeting a Jewish gathering on Sunday, the first day of Hanukkah, on Australia’s Bondi Beach, according to Australian government officials and police.
One of two gunmen identified in the shooting was also dead, and the second was hospitalized “in serious condition,” police said. Another 29 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including two officers and a child.
The shooting took place at a celebration called Hanukkah by the Sea, 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 New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon at a news conference on Sunday. Lanyon called the attack a “terrorist incident.” New South Wales is the Australian state where Bondi Beach is located, in a suburb of Sydney.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the attack “was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also characterized the shooting as “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians.”
“This afternoon, there has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi and the Hanukkah by the Sea celebration,” said Albanese at a news conference he convened in the wake of the shooting. “This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, an act of evil antisemitism — terrorism — that has struck the heart of our nation.”
Lanyon said police found an explosive device in a car, linked to the deceased suspect. A rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene on Bondi Beach, he said.
Police were not releasing more information on the gunmen implicated in the shooting, according to Lanyon, although he said at Sunday’s conference that officers were investigating whether a third gunman was involved.
Images and video footage have emerged from the scene of the attack, showing the injured being wheeled away on stretchers by first responders. 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.
“The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing,” said Albanese in a statement. “My thoughts are with every person affected.”
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.
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