At least 11 people were killed on Sunday in an attack at a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia, in what authorities described as a targeted terror attack on the Jewish community.
The event was hosted by Chabad of Bondi, a neighborhood with a major Jewish community in Sydney.
Two gunmen opened fire with long rifles from outside the gated-off event, killing at least 11, including Rabbi Eli Schlanger, the Chabad emissary to Bondi, and injuring 29, including at least one child. One gunman was killed, as well. Police also found unexploded bombs in the area, near Sydneys most popular beach.
Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, the province in which Sydney is located, said that the shooting was a targeted attack on the Sydney Jewish community. NSW Police declared the attack a terrorist incident. One of the two assailants was identified by authorities as Naveed Akram, and was killed at the scene.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said following the attack that his government would implement parts of its special envoy on antisemitisms recommendations, including additional funding for security.
This senseless attack is one which is an act of terror. It is aimed at creating fear. But we will stand with the Jewish community and Jewish Australians at this time, Albanese said in a statement to the press.
Kobi Farkash, an Israeli tourist in Sydney and an eyewitness to the attack, told Jewish Insider that he went to the beach and happened upon the Chabad event.
“It was surrounded by a simple fence. There were four or five Jewish security guards without weapons, and maybe two police officers there before the attack,” he recalled. “Someone from Chabad, a man with a kippah and tzitzit, invited me in … he told the security guard to let me in because I’m Israeli. I put on tefillin, ate a sufganiya [jelly doughnut]. There were activities for kids, like at any community event.”
After spending some time at the event, Farkash said, “I heard gunshots … I saw people running and someone on the floor, bleeding. I started running away with everyone else.”
“People were running in all directions, like the Nova,” Farkash said, referring to the Hamas massacre of revelers at a rave in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “It’s an event where people are celebrating and happy, and you can’t believe this happened a moment later. It felt like the Nova.”
When things seemed quieter, Farkash returned to the scene and found that first responders “were working very slowly. In Israel, we’re used to this and things work much faster. The ambulances, police, news reports, come sooner. My sense was that [Australian authorities] don’t know how to deal with mass casualty events. … I didn’t see anything on the news for almost an hour, and when I asked locals why they weren’t calling news hotlines or reporting on news apps, they said Australia doesn’t have that. In Israel, it would be in the news three minutes later.”
“I have never been in a terrorist attack in Israel,” Farkash, who grew up in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, said. “It’s crazy that I went to the end of the world and experienced a terror attack here.”
Prominent pro-Israel activist Arsen Ostrovsky, who recently moved back to Australia after living in Israel for 13 years to head the advocacy group Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council, was injured by a bullet that grazed his head during the attack. His wife and two daughters also attended the event, but were not injured.
I was here with my family, it was a Hanukkah event, there were hundreds of people, there were children, families, elderly, enjoying themselves, Ostrovsky told Australias News 9. All of a sudden, theres absolute chaos, theres gunfire, people ducking. I saw blood gush in front of me, I saw people hit. My only concern was where are my kids? Where is my wife? I survived Oct. 7, I lived in Israel 13 years. We came here only two weeks ago to work with the Jewish community, to fight antisemitism, to fight this bloodthirsty ravaging hatred. … We’ve lived through worse. Were going to get through this and were going to get the bastards that did this.”
“It was an absolute bloodbath, blood gushing everywhere. Oct. 7, that’s the last time I saw this. I never thought I’d see this in Australia, not in my lifetime,” Ostrovsky added.
Ostrovskys brother-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Creditor, founder of Rabbis Against Gun Violence, posted a photo of Ostrovsky being evacuated, writing, Antisemitism is blasphemy against life, and I know this will not slow my brave brother Arsen down. It will fuel his work with AIJAC on behalf of the Jewish community in Sydney All Jews are family and are responsible for one another. In this case, that hit even closer to home. We will not be quiet. We will not hide. We are Jews. We are proud. We are strong. And we have work to do in the world, and this will not slow us down. Am Yisrael Chai!
There has been a sharp increase in antisemitic attacks in Australia since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel and the subsequent war. In the decade before October 2023, there was an average of 342 anti-Jewish incidents a year in Australia; since then, the average has risen to 1,858. Incidents since October 2024, the period that the latest antisemitism report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry measures, included an arson attack on a kosher caterer, burning of cars and vandalizing buildings in a Sydney suburb, and the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne.
Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador earlier this year and designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization, after intelligence services found that Iran was linked to the arson attacks.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said, The heart of the entire nation of Israel skips a beat at this very moment, as we pray for the recovery of the wounded and we pray for those who lost their lives.
Herzog and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar noted that Israel had warned Australia that it needs to do more against antisemitism.
We repeat our alerts time and again to the Australian government to seek action and fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society, Herzog stated.
Saar posted that the attack is the results of the antisemitic rampage in the streets of Australia over the past two years, with the antisemitic and inciting calls of globalize the Intifada The Australian government, which received countless warning signs, must come to its senses!
