SYDNEY — Two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration Sunday at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and wounding at least 40 others in what Australian officials said was an act of terrorism targeting the city’s Jewish community.
Jewish leaders in Sydney reacted with grief and rage, following what they said were months of unheeded warnings about the dangers of rising antisemitism. In the wake of the attack, police in Australia stepped up security at synagogues, as did authorities in New York, London and elsewhere.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the shooting — the deadliest in this country in more than two decades — “an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation.”
Rabbi Moshe Gutnick of Sydney was at the event with his son-in-law and grandchildren. He said his family hid under a picnic table as people were gunned down around them. Among the dead were two of his best friends and a colleague.
“It’s unfathomable,” he said.
The attack
The annual celebration to mark the first night of Hanukkah, sponsored by the Chabad of Bondi, was scheduled for 5 p.m. near the playground at Bondi Beach Park, according to an online flier. About 1,000 people had gathered to mark the occasion.
A 10-minute video filmed by an unknown witness, as well as more than half a dozen other videos and photos verified and analyzed by The Post, show how the violence unfolded.
Late in the 6 p.m. hour, nearly two hours after the celebration began, the extended video shows a gunman clad in khaki pants and a black, short-sleeve shirt fire at least twice toward two people near a silver car. At least one falls to the ground.
The shooter backs toward a bridge, the video shows, joining a second, younger gunman clad in all black. Police on Monday identified the shooters as a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son, but did not name them or comment on their motives.
Video shows the two men firing more than a dozen shots toward the playground as emergency sirens start to blare. The gunmen each wear a bandolier of shotgun cartridges around their waist; a third weapon is visible at their feet.
After 40 seconds, the man wearing khaki pants quickly walks down the stairs in the direction of the playground. He has a black backpack, a pouch on his hip and carries what appears to be a sporting-style shotgun fitted with an extended magazine tube, according to N.R. Jenzen-Jones, the director of Armament Research Services, who analyzed the video at The Post’s request. The accessory increases the capacity of the weapon, he added.
The second gunman provides cover, firing additional rounds from the bridge. Photos obtained by the Daily Mail and reviewed by The Post show that he appears to be wielding a Beretta BRX1 rifle fitted with a red dot sight, which can help with faster aim, Jenzen-Jones, said. At one point, the gunman stops, walks calmly to pick up the third weapon and keeps firing.
“We gotta get the cops man,” a witness is heard saying in the video, as sirens wail and more shots ring out. “Where are the cops, man? Where are the cops?”
The two gunmen fire more than 30 additional shots toward the playground in the 90 seconds after they separate, according to audio from the video.
Then, an unidentified bystander who has been hiding behind a car decides to act, according to a second video filmed in the middle of the attack. The bystander sneaks up on the man with khaki pants, disarming him, pushing him to the ground and pointing the weapon at him as he stands up and backs away.
At that moment, the man dressed in black moves down the stairs, firing twice toward the bystander before returning to the bridge.
Within less than a minute, both gunmen were back on the bridge. The two continue to shoot, ducking behind the concrete walls to avoid return fire. Then, the man clad in khaki pants appears to be shot. The remaining gunman returns fire for another minute or so before collapsing onto the bridge.
As the guns went silent, police swarmed the area. All told, more than 100 shots were fired by the gunmen and police, according to Rob Maher, an audio expert who reviewed the footage. Two active explosive devices were found at the scene and disabled, police said. Two officers were among the injured.
The older gunman was killed, authorities confirmed Monday, while his son was in critical but stable condition at a hospital.
A ‘wake-up call’
Arthur Arnold, 26, was at his apartment nearby when he said he heard gunshots “left and right.” At first he thought the sound “was a car backfiring,” but once outside he saw scores of people running in all directions.
Gutnick, the rabbi, said police responded quickly, but should have been better prepared. “They didn’t protect us,” he said. “Why weren’t there armed SWAT police at the event?”
On a recent trip to the United States, Gutnick said, he had told people that Australia was one of the safest countries on earth. “Then this happens,” he said. “This is a big wake up call for the Jewish community, and for Australia.”
Steven Lewis, a Waverley councillor and Jewish leader in Sydney, said it was a “very tragic and sad evening,” and “something that we all hoped would never happen, but was fearful may happen.”
The Hanukkah event in Bondi is always very popular, and attended by people of all ages from across the large and tight-knit Jewish community, Lewis said. “Everyone knows everyone … It’s been a great tragedy and a great shock.”
World leaders offered condolences and prayers to the victims. “The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X. “Antisemitism has no place in this world.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “sickening” and pledged to stand with Australia and the Jewish community. Starmer said he was working with a local Jewish security organization to police Hannukah events in the United Kingdom.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mandani said one of those killed in the attack was Eli Schlanger, an Australian rabbi who had deep ties to the Crown Heights neighborhood in Brooklyn. In a post online, Mamdani called the attack “a vile act of antisemitic terror.”
Australia, like countries around the world, has witnessed a surge in antisemitic incidents over the last two years, in the aftermath of the Hamas assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel’s war in Gaza. Synagogues have been threatened, vandalized and, in one case, firebombed. Jewish neighborhoods in Sydney have been repeatedly targeted with antisemitic graffiti and cars have been set ablaze.
In February, Australia’s intelligence chief warned that a rise in antisemitic and political violence was eroding the country’s social cohesion. In August, the Australian government expelledIran’s ambassador after alleging that Tehran was linked to two antisemitic arson attacks over the last year — one at a kosher cafe and another at a synagogue. Iran denied the accusations.
The decision by Albanese in August to recognize the State of Palestine was heavily criticized by Israel and, after the attack on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Australia’s government of “pouring oil on the flames of antisemitism.” Speaking ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he had written a letter months ago to his Australian counterpart warning that their policy was “encouraging the hatred of Jews that is raging in the streets of Australia.”
Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed that one of its citizens was among those injured in the attack and is being treated at a local hospital.
Asked Monday to respond to Netanyahu’s comments, Albanese said: “This is a moment for national unity. This is a moment for Australians to come together. That’s precisely what we will be doing.”
Mass shootings are extremely rare in this country, which has some of the world’s strictest gun control laws. Sunday’s attack is the deadliest since 1996, when a lone gunman killed 35 people near Port Arthur, Tasmania, using a legally purchased Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
That attack prompted the government to buy back hundreds of thousands of firearms and strengthen gun-control laws.
Dionne Taylor, communications manager at the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said that over the last two years, she and other community leaders have been warning the government that an attack like this was becoming “inevitable.” They have “begged political leaders to stop offering just their sentiments of support and concern,” she said, and urged them to take “effective real action.”
Kelly, Westfall and George reported from Washington.
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