Terrorists kill 11 at Jewish Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach

New Delhi: Eleven people were killed and at least 29 injured when two terrorists opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, in what Australian authorities have declared an antisemitic terrorist attack. 

The shooting took place during a “Chanukah by the Sea” event organised by the local Jewish community near the Bondi beachfront, one of Australia’s most popular public spaces. Families and children had gathered to mark the first night of the eight-day festival when the terrorists began firing. 

New South Wales Police said one terrorist was shot dead at the scene, while the second was shot, arrested and remains in critical condition. Officers also located suspected improvised explosive devices in a vehicle linked to the attackers. 

“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. An act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in Canberra, calling for national unity and solidarity with the Jewish community. 

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the attack was clearly aimed at Sydney’s Jewish community. Chabad, the Orthodox Jewish movement that organised the event, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organiser of the celebration. Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that one Israeli citizen was among those killed. 

Witness videos from the beach showed people in swimsuits running for cover as shots rang out, while another clip captured a bystander tackling and disarming one of the terrorists on a footbridge near the beach. Minns described the man as a “genuine hero” whose actions likely saved lives. 

The attack is the deadliest mass shooting in Australia in nearly three decades, in a country known for strict gun control laws introduced after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. It also comes after a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents across Australia since the start of the Israel–Hamas war in October 2023, including assaults, vandalism and threats targeting Jewish institutions and neighbourhoods.