Australian authorities say a father and son, Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son Naveed, opened fire on crowds gathered at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday evening during a Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more. Officials believe the attack was aimed at terrorising Australia’s Jewish community, making it one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings in decades.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said early investigations suggest the pair were motivated by “Islamic State ideology”, describing it as an “ideology of hate” that has fuelled extremism worldwide for more than a decade. Police later said they found improvised explosive devices and two homemade ISIS-style flags in a car registered to Naveed that was parked near the beach.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed that officers recovered the bombs and flags after the shooting. Investigators are now examining the men’s digital footprint, contacts and travel history to understand how and where they may have been radicalised.
Albanese revealed that Naveed had previously been questioned by Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019 but was not considered an imminent threat at the time. He said agents interviewed him, his relatives and people around him, but concluded then that he did not meet the threshold to be treated as an active person of interest.
Immigration records show that Sajid and Naveed spent almost all of November in the Philippines before the attack. Philippine authorities listed Sajid as an Indian national and Naveed as an Australian citizen, and Australian investigators are probing whether they met Islamist extremists during their stay.
Police believe Naveed told his mother on the day of the shooting that he was going on a fishing trip outside the city. Instead, investigators think he stayed in a rented apartment near Bondi with his father, where they are suspected of finalising plans for the assault.
Armed with long-barrelled guns, the pair reportedly fired on the beach and a nearby park for about 10 minutes as people celebrated Hanukkah. Sajid, 50, was shot dead by responding officers at the scene, while Naveed was critically wounded and remains in hospital under police guard in a coma.
Among the dead were a 10-year-old girl and two Holocaust survivors, highlighting the attack’s devastating impact on the Jewish community. At least 42 other people were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds and other injuries, some in critical condition.
In response, Australia’s federal and state leaders have agreed in principle to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws. Proposed changes include tougher background checks, banning non-citizens from obtaining firearm licences and further limiting the types and number of weapons individuals can own.
The shootings have also reignited debate about rising antisemitism in Australia and the government’s response. Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, said he had repeatedly warned about growing antisemitism and criticised what he sees as slow action by authorities.
Head of the Australian Jewish Association, Robert Gregory, accused the government of failing to do enough to protect Jewish communities from targeted attacks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went further, claiming that Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood earlier in the year had poured “oil on the fire of antisemitism”.
At the same time, thousands of Australians have turned out to donate blood for the wounded. The Red Cross said more than 7,000 people donated blood on Monday alone, setting a new national record.
A large floral memorial has grown along the promenade near Bondi Beach, where mourners have gathered to honour the victims and mark the festival of Hanukkah. During a candle-lighting ceremony, a rabbi told the crowd that their shared strength lay in “bringing light into the world” in response to violence and hatred.
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