A mass shooting during a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach on Sunday evening left at least 12 people dead and nearly 30 wounded, in what officials are describing as an antisemitic terrorist attack and the deadliest mass shooting in Australia in nearly 30 years.
Authorities said the attack unfolded at the “Chanukah by the Sea” festival, a public Jewish holiday event hosted by the Chabad of Bondi, shortly after 6:40 p.m. local time as hundreds of families gathered for the first night of Hanukkah. Gunmen opened fire from a footbridge near the nearby playground, prompting panic and chaos as attendees fled.
New South Wales Police confirmed one attacker was killed at the scene and the other taken into custody in critical condition. There is a video online circulating about one local man taking down what appears to be one of the suspects. Suspicious items, including a suspected improvised explosive device, were later found and removed from a vehicle linked to one of the suspects, police said.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack as “shocking and distressing” and urged national unity in response. Leaders within the Jewish community characterized the incident as deliberately targeting Jewish Australians.
The attack stands in stark contrast to Australia’s decades‑long record without mass shootings — a result attributed to sweeping gun reforms enacted after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, which left 35 people dead and led to strict firearm regulation and buybacks. Studies show that from 1997 through the mid‑2010s, Australia experienced virtually no fatal mass shootings under the legal definition of five or more gunshot victims, a pattern researchers have linked to the post‑Port Arthur reforms, especially when compared to the same time in the United States.
The attack also sharpens focus on rising antisemitic violence globally and the vulnerability of targeted communities during religious celebrations.
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