Father and son behind Bondi Hanukkah festival shooting that killed 15, Australian police say

SYDNEY, Australia – Two alleged gunmen who killed 15 people at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach were a father and son, police said on Monday, December 15, as Australia began mourning victims of its worst gun violence in almost 30 years.

The father, a 50-year-old, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in a critical condition in hospital, police said at a press conference on Monday. Officials have described Sunday’s shooting as a targeted antisemitic attack.

Forty people remain in hospital following the attack, including two police officers who are in a serious but stable condition, police said. The victims were aged between 10 and 87.

Witnesses said the attack at the famed beach, which was packed on a hot evening, lasted about 10 minutes, sending hundreds of people scattering along the sand and into nearby streets.

Police said around 1,000 people had attended the targeted Hanukkah event, which was held in a small park off the beach.

A bystander captured on video tackling and disarming an armed man during the attack has been hailed as a hero whose actions saved lives. Channel Seven named him as Ahmed al Ahmed, citing a relative, who said the 43-year-old fruit shop owner had been shot twice and had undergone surgery.

A fundraising page for the man had raised more than A$200,000 ($133,000) by Monday morning.

Police have not said what weapons were involved in the attack, but video from the scene showed the men firing what appeared to be a bolt-action rifle and a shotgun.

“We are very much working through the background of both persons. At this stage, we know very little about them,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters.

Bondi local Morgan Gabriel, 27, said she had been heading to a nearby cinema when she heard what she thought were fireworks, before people started running up her street.

“I sheltered about six or seven. Two of them were actually my close friends, and the rest were just people that were on the street. But people, their phones had been left down the beach, and everyone was just trying to get away,” she said.

“It’s a very sad time this morning…. Normally, like on a Monday or any morning, it’s packed. People are swimming, surfing, running. So this is very, very quiet. And there’s definitely a solemn sort of vibe.”

World leaders condemn the attack

Authorities said they were confident only two attackers were involved in the incident, after previously saying they were checking whether a third offender was involved.

Police raided the home of the alleged attackers, who they did not name, late on Sunday. At the suspects’ home in Bonnyrigg, a suburb around 36 km (22 miles) west of the CBD, there was a heavy police presence on Monday, with a cordon wrapping around several neighboring houses.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Bondi Beach on Monday morning and laid flowers near the scene of the attack, while some mourners wearing kippah, or skullcaps worn by some Jewish men, were seen placing candles, flowers and Israeli and Australian flags.

Albanese earlier called the attack a “dark moment for our nation,” and said police and security agencies were thoroughly checking the motive behind the attack.

“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location,” Albanese told reporters.

“The Jewish community are hurting today. Today, all Australians wrap our arms around them and say, we stand with you. We will do whatever is necessary to stamp out antisemitism. It is a scourge, and we will eradicate it together.”

Albanese said several world leaders including US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron had reached out and he thanked them for their solidarity.

“In Australia, there was a terrible attack…and that was an antisemitic attack obviously,” Trump said during a Christmas reception at the White House on Sunday, paying his respects to victims of the attack at Bondi and another shooting at Rhode Island’s Brown University.

Sunday’s shootings were the most serious in a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars in Australia since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had warned Albanese that Australia’s support for Palestinian statehood would fuel antisemitism.

In August, Australia accused Iran of directing at least two antisemitic attacks and gave Tehran’s ambassador a week to leave the country.

‘Saw bodies on the ground’

Mass shootings are rare in Australia, one of the world’s safest countries. Sunday’s attack was the worst since 1996, when a gunman killed 35 people at the Port Arthur tourist site in the southern island state of Tasmania.

Hundreds of police personnel were at Bondi Beach on Monday as locals, witnesses and officials visited a makeshift memorial near the beach’s famous pavilion, where flags flew at half-mast.

“We were in the water and next second we see people laying on the floor, a kid was shot, it was probably the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” said Trent Tur, an 18-year-old lifesaver.

“Honestly, it’s terrible. As a community we can move forward from this, it will be hard but the spirit, the Australian spirit in Bondi is very high and we can move forward.”

Rabbi Mendel Kastel, whose brother-in-law Eli Schlanger was killed in Sunday’s attack, said it had been a harrowing evening.

“You can very easily become very angry and try to blame people, turn on people but that’s not what this is about. It’s about a community,” he said.

“We need to step up at a time like this, be there for each other, and come together. And we will, and we will get through this, and we know that. The Australian community will help us do it,” he added.

Local woman Danielle, who declined to give her surname, was at the beach when the shooting occurred and raced to collect her daughter, who was attending a bar mitzvah at a function centre near where the alleged shooters were positioned.

“I heard there was a shooting so I bolted there to get my daughter, I could hear gunshots, I saw bodies on the ground. We are used to being scared, we have felt this way since October 7.”

Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. The attack precipitated Israel’s war in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Australia’s Jewish diaspora is small but deeply embedded in the wider community, with about 150,000 people who identify as Jewish in the country of 27 million. About one-third of them are estimated to live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including Bondi.

Major cities including Berlin, London and New York stepped up security around Hanukkah events on Sunday following the attack at Bondi. – Rappler.com

($1 = 1.5044 Australian dollars)