UPDATE — 2:13 PM PST: Australian police said a father and his son were responsible for the Bondi Beach attack. The father is dead, and the son is in critical condition, according to Fox News.
Original article
It was an annual celebration of the first night of Hanukkah at the iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. The crowd had just begun to gather for "Hanukkah at the Beach" at 5:30 p.m. local time when two shooters opened fire.
The two shooters, one identified as "Naveed Akram from Bonnyrigg in Sydney's south-west," calmly went about the business of mass murder. Akram was apparently known to authorities. One of the shooters was killed by police; the other is in critical condition.
"One of these individuals was known to us, but not in an immediate-threat perspective, so we need to look into what happened here," said Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) head Mike Burgess.
“A number of suspicious items located in the vicinity are being examined by specialist officers and an exclusion zone is in place,” New South Wales police said in a statement at 9 p.m. local time. Those "suspicious items" turned out to be improvised explosive devices (IEDs). They were found in a van used by the terrorists and parked near the beach.
Video captured one heroic civilian who tackled one of the terrorists and disarmed him.
UNARMED AUSTRALIAN DISARMED TERRORIST DURING MASS SHOOTING IN SYDNEY
— Drew Pavlou 🇦🇺🇺🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼 (@DrewPavlou) December 14, 2025
BALLS OF STEEL
AUSTRALIAN OF THE YEAR pic.twitter.com/NBRvcGnKKM
News.com.au has confirmed the hero has been named as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a Sydney local who owns a fruit shop in Sutherland.
Ahmed is the father-of-two children and was shot twice during the unbelievable act, according to his cousin. who spoke to 7News.
“He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside,” the man named Mustafa told the outlet.
“We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero 100 percent.”
🩸BREAKING:
— Sardarji Singh_ (@zPopzz_) December 14, 2025
One of the two Is|am!c J!had! Terrorist in Sydney’s mass-shooting identified as Naveed Akram (Pic 1). A Pakistani?
🔥 The Australian hero who snatched the gun from the Is|am!c J!had! Terrorist is Ahmed El Ahmad (Pic 2). 🫡👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/CpOnqelfq2
The terrorists left behind scenes of utter chaos.
Mass shooting at bondi beach in Australia.
— Lax 🇮🇳 (@lkantalk) December 14, 2025
7 October 2023 It was Israel.
Today its Australia.
Same people same mindset. They came to this world to harm life, destroy life. pic.twitter.com/IOrXwpNesC
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he warned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the antisemitic atmosphere in Australia, charging Canberra with pouring fuel “on this antisemitic fire.”
Paraphrasing his letter, Netanyahu says Albanese’s policies, which include recognizing a Palestinian state, encourage “the Jew-hatred now stalking your streets. Antisemitism is a cancer. It spreads when leaders stay silent. You must replace weakness with action.”
Netanyahu says the attack was “awful. Cold-blooded murder. The numbers of casualties is unfortunately rising every minute. We saw the depths of evil. We also saw the pinnacle of Jewish heroism,” he says, pointing out a bystander he says was Jewish, who was filmed wrestling a weapon out of the hands of one of the attackers.
“We are in a battle against global antisemitism and the only way to fight it is to denounce it and to fight it,” Netanyahu continues. “There is no other way. That’s what we are doing in Israel. The IDF and our security forces, with our government and our nation, we will continue to do this.”
Some Australian Jews are "not shocked" by the attack.
“I’m horrified and devastated that this happened, but not shocked,” Lynda Ben-Menashe, president of the National Council of Jewish Women Australia, told The Times of Israel. “Over the past two years, antisemitism has been rising by the month, and the government has not listened to our pleas. When there is no visible consequence to incitement, violence always ensues.”
Over the past year, Jews in Australia have seen synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital, and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives said to have been intended to cause a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.
“I’m trying to process what impact this is going to have on the Jewish community of Australia,” said Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia. “This may be the worst attack on Jews anywhere in the world since October 7, and it’s the second-worst mass shooting in Australian history. I don’t know what happens now.”
If history is any guide, Albanese will display the proper level of regret as the country engages in performative displays of sorrow and hand-wringing.
Meanwhile, very little will change and the scourge of antisemitism will continue to cause tragedies and ruin lives as it did in Sydney on the first night of Hanukkah.
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