To celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, 1,000 people gathered on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, for an event that was supposed to have live music, dancing, games, and entertainment for people of all ages. What started off as a night where people were celebrating with their families quickly changed when, less than two hours into the event, at around 6:47 P.M., two gunmen opened fire into the crowd, causing chaos and death as panicked people ran in all directions.
According to CNN, 15 people died from the shooting, and originally 38 were rushed to the hospital in critical condition. One of the casualties included Alex Kleytman, who had survived The Holocaust 80 years prior. He died shielding his wife Larisa, as stated by the Jewish organization Chabad. Other devastating casualties included Matilda, a 10 year old girl, Rabbi Eli Schangler, who had organized the event, and Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, among other victims of the shooting.
The two shooters have been identified as father and son, 50 year old Sajid Akram and 24 year old Naveed Akram. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has stated that the shooting seems to have been inspired by extremist “Islamic State ideology”. Australian counterterrorism officials have confirmed that the two suspects took a trip to the southern Philippines a month prior, where they were believed to have undergone military-style training. The final destination in the Philippines of the two was the city of Davao, on Mindanao Island, which is known to be home to many Islamest insurgent groups. Police have also discovered a car registered to the younger suspect that “contained IED’s” and “two homemade ISIS flags”. Federal security services conducted an investigation into the shooters, and found that the father has held a firearm license for approximately the past decade, with no previous incidents.
In the attack, Sajid Akram was shot and killed by authorities. After the attack, Naveed Akram was taken in by authorities. According to PBS, “the surviving suspect…has been charged with 15 counts of murder, one for each of the victims, and 59 charges in all.”
Ahmed Al Ahmed, a father of two, is seen as the Bondi Beach hero. After the shooting, a video went viral of a man, later identified to be Ahmed, tackling one of the shooters and taking his gun from him. Unfortunately, he was shot multiple times during this and hospitalized, but he has been in a stable condition ever since. Ahmed has undergone many surgeries and still has some scheduled. Although he has a long journey ahead of him, Australians who have never met Ahmed have set up a fundraising page to support him and they have already raised over 2 million Australian dollars ( ~ 1.3 million USD.) Ahmed’s heroic acts have been honored by world leaders all over the world, and he is seen as a strong representation of the brave country Australia is, according to Albanese. According to CBS News, under Australia’s national, tax-funded health care system, Ahmed, a permanent-legal citizen of the country, shouldn’t be responsible for paying any bills from any of his medical care.
Albanese publicly stated that “this is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith, in faith, an act of evil, anti-semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation”. Since the shooting Sunday night, Australia has already enacted plans to strengthen their already strict gun laws, with new license restriction measures to help prevent a tragedy like this from ever occurring again.
Sources:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bondi-beach-australia-shooting-hero-ahmed-al-ahmed-donations-recovery/
https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/14/australia/australia-bondi-attack-what-we-know-intl-hnk
