14/12/2025
Tragedy Strikes Australia's Bondi Beach. Murderers Target Jewish Community Celebrating Hanukkah. 11 killed And More Injured. One Of The Killers Killed, The Other Shot, In Critical Condition
SYDNEY (AP) — Two gunmen shot dead at least 11 people on Sunday during a Jewish holiday celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australian authorities said, declaring it a terrorist attack. One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second arrested.
The suspect was in critical condition, authorities said. At least 29 people were confirmed wounded, including two police officers, said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.
The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular and iconic beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those episodes and Sunday’s shooting were connected. They said one of the gunmen was known to the security services, but that there had been no specific threat.
Hundreds had gathered for the gathering at Bondi Beach called Chanukah by the Sea, which was celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.
Chabad identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event,
Chabad is an Orthodox Jewish movement that is known for its outreach to non-religious Jews. It runs scores of centers around the world that are popular with Jewish travelers and often sponsors large public events during major Jewish holidays.
Video footage filmed by onlookers appeared to show two gunmen with long guns firing from a bridge. One dramatic clip apparently filmed by a member of the public and broadcast on Australian television channels showed someone appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him.
Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Antisemitic incidents including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation surged more than threefold in the country during the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.
Throughout last summer, the country was rocked by spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population live.
In the picture, the scene of the attack with several fatalities at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Sunday Decmbr 14 2025. (AP Photo: Marc Kalpidis)
