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Tag: Australia

  • Bondi Beach suspects reportedly trained in the Philippines, where there’s a decades-old Islamist insurgency

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    The father and son suspects in the terror attack on Jewish people gathered for a Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach, Australia, spent most of November in the Philippines, police said Tuesday. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, meanwhile, that the attack was “motivated by ISIS ideology.”

    New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters that investigators were still looking into the reasons for the trip and where exactly the men went between Nov. 1 and 28. The Philippines Bureau of Immigration said Sajid Akram, 50, who was killed during the attack, and his 24-year-old son, identified widely by Australian media as Naveed Akram, had listed the southern city of Davao as their final destination on the trip.

    Australian public broadcaster ABC reported the men had undergone “military-style training” in the Asian nation, citing security sources.

    Philippines officials denied it. Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro, quoting a National Security Council statement, said “there is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines,” according to French news agency AFP.

    “People have traveled and networked amongst these groups, but very, very rarely,” Tom Smith, the academic director of the Royal Air Force College who studies security and terrorism in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, told CBS News. “And this is often overblown.”

    An Australian flag is placed near flowers laid as a tribute to honor the victims of a terror attack that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025.

    Reuters/Flavio Brancaleone


    The Philippines’ history with Islamist insurgency

    Islamist separatists have operated in the southern Philippines for decades — it’s “an insurgency which is almost 100 years in the making,” according to Smith.

    He said two longstanding militant groups in the region — the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, known as the MILF, and the Moro National Liberation Front, or MNLF — have been “sort of the grandfather, old rebellious groups of the Islamist movement” in the region.

    But, Smith said, “when you have two rather, sort of beefy militant groups, people get disgruntled. And so there’s loads of other fringe, much smaller militant groups” in the region as well, including one called Abu Sayyaf, which is affiliated with ISIS.

    Smith said these groups are “much smaller in number, but probably more vicious in their attacks against civilians and government officials.”

    “Analysts now describe Abu Sayyaf as fragmented remnants with residual ideological affinity to Islamic State (ISIS), but little evidence of real operational direction or sustained funding” from ISIS, Lucas Webber, a senior research fellow at the New York-based Soufan Center think tank, told CBS News.

    Based in the Philippines’ remote Sulu archipelago, Abu Sayyaf’s main business is kidnapping for ransom, Smith said.

    They “wrapped themselves in the ISIS flag, or the al Qaeda banner in years gone by, because they want to inflate their sense of danger. Because, quite frankly, there’s an economic incentive to that. Because it means that they will get a higher ransom paid more efficiently, and these guys don’t play,” he said. “They will actually behead people.”

    That is a view shared by the U.S. government, which designated Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization in 1997, not long after it emerged as an offshoot of the larger Islamist groups in the region.

    According to the U.S. State Department’s most recent assessment from 2023, it is “one of the most violent terrorist groups in the Philippines.”

    “Some Abu Sayyaf Group factions have been reported to interact and coordinate with ISIS-P [ISIS-Philippines], including by participating in attacks that are claimed by ISIS in the Sulu Archipelago,” the U.S. government assessment said, adding that it had “committed bombings, ambushes of security personnel, public beheadings, assassinations, extortion, and kidnappings for ransom.”

    But both Smith and Webber told CBS News that Abu Sayyaf, and other regional factions, had been dealt a serious blow in recent years.

    “Years of military pressure [with U.S. support], better local governance in Bangsamoro, and amnesty/reintegration programs have broken up many networks, led to mass surrenders, and sharply reduced the frequency and scale of attacks,” Webber said. “At the same time, small pockets of militants and ex‑fighters with IS ideology remain in parts of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, and individuals can still be radicalized online or through personal ties. The main risk today is less a large ‘IS province’ on Philippine soil, and more the possibility that residual cells or sympathizers could attempt sporadic attacks or link up with transnational plots if local conditions deteriorate or security efforts are neglected.”

    Terror training camps?

    The Associated Press cited Philippine military and police officials on Tuesday as saying there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants operating in the south of the country.

    Smith said to travel to receive weapons training with Abu Sayyaf militants would be very difficult for foreigners in the Philippines, especially without any local language skills.

    “They would stick out like a sore thumb,” Smith said. “When I go there, you know, I’m there with military support. I have a Ph.D. in the area, and even I stick out like a sore thumb.”

    He said there are “plenty of armed people in Mindanao, in the Philippines, for them to go and practice, you know, firing rifles and what have you. But it’s a long way to say that that equals a terrorist camp.”

    Referring to the suspects in the Bondi Beach attack, Smith said it was “much more likely that they could have got some ex-rebels and gone somewhere in the jungle for a couple of weeks and been shown how to fire and clean their rifles and stuff like that.”

    The two larger militant groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front — which are not affiliated with ISIS — do “have the training camps. They’re left alone to their territories. But it would be very unusual if the Bondi Beach attackers got orientated with them, because I just can’t imagine that the MILF or the MNLF would have countenanced that. So it is really unusual,” Smith said.

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  • FIFA offers pool of lower-priced World Cup tickets following backlash

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    Football Australia will be able to issue $90 tickets to the Socceroos’ most loyal fans after FIFA agreed to slash the price of some World Cup tickets following a global backlash.

    Some fans will even get $US60 ($90) seats for the final instead of being asked to pay $US4,185 ($6,300).

    However, they are likely to only equate to around 500 tickets a match that Australia plays.

    FIFA said that the cheaper tickets would be made available for every game at the tournament, going to the national federations whose teams are playing. Those federations will decide how to distribute them to fans who have attended previous games at home and on the road.

    The cheaper tickets, labelled “Supporter Entry Tier”, will be 10 per cent of the federation’s allocation — which itself will vary depending on stadium size.

    The “participant member association” allocation is 8 per cent of stadium capacity per country per match.

    Australia’s group games are in Vancouver (54,000 capacity), Seattle (69,000) and Santa Clara (71,000), meaning it will respectively receive 432, 552, and 568 $90 tickets for its matches against a UEFA play-off winner (Turkey, Romania, Slovakia or Kosovo), USA and Paraguay.

    So will its opponents. The next cheapest tickets are priced at around $400.

    FIFA’s climbdown follows meetings between senior officials in Doha this week, where federations are understood to have pushed back at the pricing model.

    Fans worldwide reacted with shock and anger last week on seeing FIFA’s ticketing plans that gave participating teams no tickets in the lowest-priced category.

    The co-hosts had pledged eight years ago — when they were bidding for the tournament — that hundreds of thousands of $US21 ($32) tickets would be made available.

    FIFA has also faced fierce criticism for a ticket pricing strategy that includes dynamic pricing, in which prices can increase due to demand, and acting as its own resale platform, taking a cut in the process.

    When the original pricing was announced Football Supporters Association Australia chairman Patrick Clancy said the prices were high but he thought many Socceroos’ fans would still buy them.

    “These are historically high prices — even the minimums,” he said.

    “I’m sure there will be some people who choose not (to go), and that’s absolutely fine, but I suspect the large majority will not be put off.”

    AAP/AP/PA

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  • Australia Let This Evil Come and Fester Here | RealClearPolitics

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    Australia let this evil come and fester here.

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    Misha Saul, City Journal

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  • Australian leader says Bondi Beach suspects

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    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday that the father and son suspects in the antisemitic terror attack on a Hanukkah gathering on Bondi Beach were inspired by ISIS, as officials in India confirmed that the older man was originally from that nation.

    Authorities also revealed that gunmen had recently returned from the Philippines, where they traveled to an area known as a hotbed for terrorist groups.

    The mass shooting on the famous beach left 15 innocent people dead, including a 10-year-old girl and an Holocaust survivor. The attack was “motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Albanese said Tuesday as he visited one of the heroes who tried to stop the attackers.

    Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett also said Tuesday that it was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” referring to the now disparate group that, for several years, held a huge swathe of territory spanning the Syria-Iraq border.

    The suspects, a father and son aged 50 and 24, used guns that were owned legally by the older man, whom officials in New South Wales state have named as Sajid Akram. He was shot dead at the scene, and his son was still being treated in a hospital on Tuesday, where Australian public broadcaster ABC said he had regained consciousness.

    Indian police confirm father was from Hyderabad

    Police in the southern Indian state of Telangana confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that Sajid Akram was originally from the city of Hyderabad. In a statement, the police said he earned a degree in Hyderabad before migrating to Australia in November 1998, where he married a woman of European origin.

    Sajid Akram held an Indian passport, while his son Naveed and a daughter were both born in Australia and are citizens of the country, the police said, confirming previous statements by Australian officials about the son’s nationality. U.S. officials had told CBS News soon after the attack that at least one of the Akrams was believed to be a Pakistani national, but that appears to have been a case of mistaken identity, and a man with the same name as the younger suspect has come forward in Sydney to say he was wrongly identified.

    The Telangana police said the elder Akram had “limited contact with his family in Hyderabad over the past 27 years,” visiting six times since he migrated to Australia, “primarily for family-related reasons.”

    The police statement said family members in India had “expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalization, and that the son’s apparent radicalization appeared “to have no connection with India.”

    Australian officials have confirmed that homemade ISIS flags were found — along with an improvised explosive device — in the suspects’ vehicle at Bondi Beach on Sunday, and police provided new information on Tuesday about their recent movements.

    Suspected gunmen spent most of November in the Philippines

    Both men traveled to the Philippines in November, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters on Tuesday, adding that investigators were still looking into the reasons for the trip and where exactly the men went.

    The Philippines Bureau of Immigration said both Sajid Akram and his son, identified widely by Australian media as Naveed Akram, spent most of November — from the 1st until the 28th — in the Philippines, and listing the city of Davao as their final destination.  

    Muslim separatists, including the Islamist Abu Sayyaf group that once publicly backed ISIS, are active in that part of the southern Philippines. ABC, the Australian public broadcaster, said the men had undergone “military-style training” in the Philippines, citing security sources.

    That group and others in the region have drawn and trained some foreign militants from across Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the past, according to the Associated Press, though Abu Sayyaf has been weakened in recent years by repeated military offensives.

    The AP cited Philippine military and police officials as saying there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants operating in the south of the country.

    Did Australian officials fail the Jewish community?

    Australian officials confirmed Monday that Naveed Akram was under investigation for about six months during 2019 for suspected links to a Sydney-based terror cell, though the nation’s primary spy agency found he represented no threat, and officials said the probe had focused on associates.

    Australia’s ABC network reported that his ties included “longstanding links” to members of a pro-ISIS cell in Australia, including contact with alleged jihadist spiritual leader Wisam Haddad and a man named Youssef Uweinat, who was convicted of recruiting young people in Australia to Islamic extremism.

    A lawyer for Haddad has denied that the cleric had “any knowledge of or involvement in the shootings that took place at Bondi Beach,” according to the network.

    Many people, from the daughter of one of the victims, to a former Australian leader, have told CBS News the men’s history should have raised serious red flags, if not stopped them before they claimed so many lives.

    Israeli officials have harshly criticized Australia’s government for failing to protect Jewish people amid a sharp rise in recent years of antisemitic incidents.

    Police set up a cordon at the scene of a mass shooting at Bondi Beach, Dec. 14, 2025 in Sydney, Australia.

    George Chan/Getty


    “We are now facing here a surge of antisemitism, and Australians of Jewish faith are not feeling secure in their own country, and this is insane,” Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon told CBS News on Tuesday, urging Australian leaders to create opportunities for young people of different faiths to come together, “and not once a year, but on a weekly basis.”

    Maimon also said “boundaries should be set” by Australian authorities, referring to pro-Palestinian demonstrations that have been held in the country.

    “I believe that it’s very important to make sure that while the principle of freedom of expression should be kept, there should be also a limit to the language that some protesters, and in some protests, we hear,” he said. “I always believe that there is room to do more. Always. I’m asking myself every day, ‘what can I do better? How can I do better?’ And I’m trying to do it. And I do expect the Australian government to do better.”

    Former Australian leader says there are no easy answers

    Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told CBS News on Tuesday that the national government undoubtedly had some very big questions to answer, but he stressed that intelligence gathering — for all nations — is an imperfect science.

    “This type of terrorism has been, the elements of that, have been present in Australia for a long time, and our agencies spend a lot of time keeping an eye on them, but it’s hard to track every single person,” said Turnbull, who was Australian prime minister from 2015 to 2018.

    “Certainly, it’s a very big question: Why does somebody living in the suburbs of Sydney need six long arms, as he [Sajid Akram] had, even though they were licensed? Second question is, why were they licensed to a man who had a son who had been on an ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organization] watchlist because of links to ISIS-related entities?  … And that trip to the Philippines raises another question: Why were they there? And so, you know, this gets back to the problem that I think we face all around the world, is databases talking to each other? Are we actually putting all the dots together in time?”

    2017-07-29t235608z-1392997468-rc1f169e8e00-rtrmadp-3-australia-security-raids.jpg

    Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks during a news conference in Sydney, Australia, in a July 30, 2017 file photo. 

    AAP/Sam Mooy/via Reuters


    “There are holes in everybody’s intelligence gathering,” Turnbull said. “But as you know, the terrorist only has to be right once. The security agencies have to be right every time.”

    Regarding the sharp criticism levelled by many in the Jewish community, in particular, over perceived failings in detecting the threat posed by the suspects, and also in sufficiently protecting the pre-planned Jewish event on Bondi Beach, Turnbull said he wasn’t sure how much more could have been done by his successor Albanese.

    “I’ve been prime minister, right? And I’m on the opposite side of politics, so I’m not trying to be partisan about this, but I struggle to see what he could have done that was different. I mean there have been people saying he shouldn’t have allowed pro-Palestine marches. Well, you know, we do have freedom of assembly and freedom of speech in Australia. I mean we have restrictions in Australia on speech, on hate speech, and on guns, in particular.”

    “When I ask people, they will say he should have condemned antisemitism more often. Well, I’ve never heard him do anything other than condemn it, but my question really is to say, what would difference would that have made? To those terrorists, you know, they’re not going to listen to a lecture on the evils of antisemitism from you or me or Anthony Albanese.”

    “Remember, terrorism is a political act, right? So, you’ve got to try to interrupt people being radicalized, particularly young men, it’s the most vulnerable group, and that involves monitoring what is being said online, what they’re being taught, you know, in schools or in mosques or in other places. And the intelligence agencies are doing that all the time,” he said. 

    Arshad R. Zargar

    contributed to this report.

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  • Donald Trump’s Remarks on the Death of Rob Reiner Are Next-Level Degradation

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    Have you ever in your life encountered a character as wretched as Donald Trump? For many people, this was a question asked and definitively answered twenty years ago, when Trump was still a real-estate vulgarian shilling his brand on Howard Stern’s radio show and agreeing with the host’s assessment that his daughter Ivanka was “a piece of ass” and describing how he could “get away with” going backstage at the Miss Universe pageant to see the contestants naked.

    Or, perhaps, his character came clear a decade later, during his first run for the Presidency, when he said of John McCain, who spent more than five years being tortured in a North Vietnamese prison, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.” This was from a man who avoided the war with four student deferments and a medical deferment for bone spurs in his heel. Larry Braunstein, a podiatrist in Jamaica, Queens, who provided Trump with this timely diagnosis, in the fall of 1968, rented his office from Fred Trump, Donald’s father. One of the late doctor’s daughters told the Times, “I know it was a favor.”

    One day, a historian will win a contract to assemble the collected quotations of the forty-fifth and forty-seventh President—all the press-room rants, the Oval Office put-downs, the 3 A.M. Truth Social fever dreams. The early chapters will include: “Blood coming out of her—wherever.” “Horseface.” “Fat pig.” “Suckers.” “Losers.” “Enemies of the people.” “Pocahontas.” And then the volume will move on to “Piggy.” “Things happen.” And so on.

    After a decade of constant presence on the political stage, Trump no longer seems capable of shocking anyone with the brutality of his language or the heedlessness of his behavior. His supporters continue to excuse his insouciant cruelty as “Trump being Trump,” proof of his authenticity. (The antisemitism of Nick Fuentes, Tucker Carlson, and a gaggle of group-chatting young Republican leaders is, similarly, included in the “big tent” of MAGA rhetoric.) Now, when a friend begins a conversation with “Did you hear what Trump said today?,” you do your best to dodge the subject. What’s the point? And yet the President really did seem to break through to a new level of degradation this week.

    This past weekend brought a terrible and rapid succession of violent events. On Saturday afternoon, in Providence, an unidentified gunman on the Brown University campus shot and killed two students and wounded nine others in the midst of exam period. The killer has yet to be found. On Sunday, in Archer Park, near Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, a father-and-son team, both dressed in black and heavily armed, reportedly took aim at a crowd of Jewish men, women, and children who were celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. At least fifteen people were killed, including an eighty-seven-year-old Holocaust survivor and a ten-year-old girl. The massacre was the latest in a long series of antisemitic incidents in Australia—and beyond.

    Finally, on Sunday night, came the news that the actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, had been found dead in their home. Their bodies were discovered by their daughter Romy. Los Angeles police arrested their son, the thirty-two-year-old Nick Reiner. According to press reports, the investigation had focussed on him immediately not only because of his history of drug abuse but also because he had been behaving erratically the night before, in his parents’ presence, at a holiday party at the home of Conan O’Brien. Nick Reiner is being held, without bail, in Los Angeles County jail.

    There was something about these three events that came in such rapid succession that it savaged the spirit—the yet-again regularity of American mass shootings, this time in Providence; the stark Jew hatred behind the slaughter in Australia; the sheer sadness of losing such a beloved and decent figure in the popular culture, and his wife, purportedly at the hands of their troubled son. It would be naïve to think that any leader, any clergy, could ease all that pain with a gesture or a speech. Barack Obama speaking and singing “Amazing Grace” from the pulpit in Charleston, South Carolina, or Robert F. Kennedy speaking in Indianapolis on the night of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.—that kind of moral eloquence is somehow beyond our contemporary imaginations and expectations. What you would not expect is for a President of the United States to make matters even worse than they were. But, of course, he did. A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood,” Trump wrote, on Truth Social, on Monday. He went on:

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    David Remnick

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  • Rabbi who knew Bondi Beach victim emphasizes importance of celebrating Hanukkah amid tragedy

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    HANUKKAH CELEBRATIONS ARE WELL UNDERWAY. AND TONIGHT A LOCAL CONGREGATION IS MAKING SURE THEY STAND TOGETHER IN THE WAKE OF A DEADLY MASS SHOOTING IN SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA, TARGETING A HANUKKAH EVENT. ORGANIZERS AT THE MONROEVILLE LIGHT OF NIGHT CELEBRATION SAY THEY COORDINATED WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT AHEAD OF THE EVENT, COVERING ALLEGHENY COUNTY IN MONROEVILLE, PITTSBURGH’S ACTION NEWS FOUR REPORTER JORDAN CIOPPA HEARD WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT FOR THE JEWISH COMMUNITY TO KEEP THE TRADITION GOING THIS YEAR, DESPITE THE ANTI-SEMITISM OVERSEAS. IT’S THE SECOND NIGHT OF HANUKKAH, AND TONIGHT, THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN MONROEVILLE WENT ALL OUT WITH A MENORAH MADE OF ICE. PEOPLE. THE CELEBRATION EMPHASIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF SPREADING LIGHT IN A TIME OF DARKNESS. LET US DEDICATE THE LIGHTS OF THESE CANDLES IN THEIR MEMORY, SO THAT WE CAN ONLY INCREASE IN THE LIGHT. THE CONGREGANTS OF CHABAD JEWISH CENTER OF MONROEVILLE CELEBRATED NIGHT TWO OF HANUKKAH WITH THEIR JEWISH BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN AUSTRALIA. ON THEIR MINDS, JUST REALLY HEARTBROKEN. RABBI MENDY SHAPIRO SAYS HE WAS CLASSMATES WITH RABBI ELI SCHLANGER, ONE OF THE 15 PEOPLE KILLED IN AN ATTACK ON HANUKKAH CELEBRATION ON SYDNEY’S BONDI BEACH. SHAPIRO SAYS HE GREW UP WITH SCHLANGER IN NEW YORK AND HAD RECENTLY CONNECTED WITH HIM AT AN EVENT THERE. HE’S JUST A SPECIAL PERSON AND HIS MESSAGE, I KNOW THAT HE HE WAS THERE AT THIS EVENT, SPREADING LIGHT IN THE FACE OF ALL THE DARKNESS THAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD, AND THAT THAT’S SOMETHING THAT I KNOW HE’S BEEN TEACHING. SHAPIRO MADE SURE TO DO THE SAME MONDAY NIGHT. BUNDLED UP IN HEAVY COATS, HATS AND GLOVES, THE CROWD DIDN’T LET THE FRIGID TEMPS HINDER THEM FROM CARRYING ON BELOVED HANUKKAH TRADITIONS. WELL, FOR SURE, OF COURSE, WE’RE LETTING THE MENORAH EVERY NIGHT. WE ALWAYS HAVE THE BATTLE IN OUR FAMILY, WHICH IS WHICH WE LIKE BETTER. THE THE LATKES OR THE JELLY DONUTS. SO WE COMPROMISE AND DO BOTH. AND IT TURNS OUT THE COLD WEATHER MADE THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT FOR THE MENORAH ICE SCULPTURE, WITH THE WEATHER BEING LIKE IT IS RIGHT NOW AND THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE THAT SHOWED UP, IT’S JUST IT JUST SHOWS THE IDEA OF COMMUNITY AND IT’S JUST A GREAT TIME. TO. THE CELEBRATION WRAPPED UP WITH CHOCOLATE COINS RAINING DOWN ON THE CHILDREN IN WHAT’S CALLED THE GUILT DROP THROUGH SMILES, LAUGHTER AND LIGHT. THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF MONROEVILLE SPREADING A POWERFUL MESSAGE THIS HOLIDAY, AND A WAY TO PUSH AWAY DARKNESS IS NOT TO FIGHT. IT IS TO BRING MORE LIGHT. AND WHEN YOU LIGHT SOME MORE LIGHT, YOU PUSH AWAY THE DARKNESS. ORGANIZERS SAY THEY’RE TAKING PRECAUTIONS FOR HANUKKAH DINNER ON THURSDAY AS WELL, COVERING ALLEGHEN

    Rabbi who knew Bondi Beach victim emphasizes importance of celebrating Hanukkah amid tragedy

    Updated: 2:43 AM PST Dec 16, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Members of the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroeville near Pittsburgh celebrated night two of Hanukkah with their Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia on their minds. “Let us dedicate the lights of these candles in their memory so that we can only increase in the light,” Rabbi Mendy Schapiro told the crowd at Monroeville’s 10th annual Light up the Night event on Monday. Schapiro told sister station WTAE that he was classmates with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of the 15 people killed in an attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The rabbi said he grew up with Schlanger in New York and had recently connected with him at an event there. “He’s such a special person and his message, I know that he was there at this event spreading light in the face of all of the darkness that’s going on in the world,” Schapiro said. “That’s something that I know that he’s been teaching.”Video above: Sacramento rabbi mourns family friend killed at Bondi BeachSchapiro made sure to do the same on Monday night. Bundled up in heavy coats, hats, and gloves, the crowd didn’t let the frigid temps hinder them from carrying on beloved Hanukkah traditions. “Of course, we’re lighting the menorah every night. We always have the battle in our family, which do we like better, the latkes or the jelly doughnuts? So we compromise and do both,” Michael Edelstein said. It turns out the cold weather made the perfect environment for the event’s menorah ice sculpture. “With the weather being like it is right now and the amount of people that showed up, it just shows the idea of community, and it’s a great time,” said Turtle Creek Mayor Adam Forgie. The celebration wrapped up with chocolate coins raining down on the children in what’s called the “gelt drop.”Through smiles, laughter, and light, the Jewish community of Monroeville spread a powerful message this holiday. “The way to push away darkness is not to fight it; it’s to bring more light. And when you light more light, you push away the darkness,” Schapiro said. Organizers said they coordinated with local law enforcement ahead of Monday’s event and an upcoming Hanukkah dinner on Thursday in the name of safety.

    Members of the Chabad Jewish Center of Monroeville near Pittsburgh celebrated night two of Hanukkah with their Jewish brothers and sisters in Australia on their minds.

    “Let us dedicate the lights of these candles in their memory so that we can only increase in the light,” Rabbi Mendy Schapiro told the crowd at Monroeville’s 10th annual Light up the Night event on Monday.

    Schapiro told sister station WTAE that he was classmates with Rabbi Eli Schlanger, one of the 15 people killed in an attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

    The rabbi said he grew up with Schlanger in New York and had recently connected with him at an event there.

    “He’s such a special person and his message, I know that he was there at this event spreading light in the face of all of the darkness that’s going on in the world,” Schapiro said. “That’s something that I know that he’s been teaching.”

    Video above: Sacramento rabbi mourns family friend killed at Bondi Beach

    Schapiro made sure to do the same on Monday night. Bundled up in heavy coats, hats, and gloves, the crowd didn’t let the frigid temps hinder them from carrying on beloved Hanukkah traditions.

    “Of course, we’re lighting the menorah every night. We always have the battle in our family, which do we like better, the latkes or the jelly doughnuts? So we compromise and do both,” Michael Edelstein said.

    It turns out the cold weather made the perfect environment for the event’s menorah ice sculpture.

    “With the weather being like it is right now and the amount of people that showed up, it just shows the idea of community, and it’s a great time,” said Turtle Creek Mayor Adam Forgie.

    The celebration wrapped up with chocolate coins raining down on the children in what’s called the “gelt drop.”

    Through smiles, laughter, and light, the Jewish community of Monroeville spread a powerful message this holiday.

    “The way to push away darkness is not to fight it; it’s to bring more light. And when you light more light, you push away the darkness,” Schapiro said.

    Organizers said they coordinated with local law enforcement ahead of Monday’s event and an upcoming Hanukkah dinner on Thursday in the name of safety.

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  • Antisemitism Allowed to Fester in Australia, Says Daughter of Wounded Holocaust Survivor

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    By Christine Chen and Tom Bateman

    SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Government authorities have not ‌done ​enough to stamp out hatred of Jews ‌in Australia, which has allowed it to fester in the aftermath of October 7, said ​the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who was wounded at the Bondi shootings on Sunday.

    Victoria Teplitsky, 53, a retired childcare centre owner, said that ‍the father and son who allegedly went ​on a 10-minute shooting spree that killed 15 people had been “taught to hate,” which was a bigger factor in the attack than access ​to guns.

    “It’s not ⁠the fact that those two people had a gun. It’s the fact that hatred has been allowed to fester against the Jewish minority in Australia,” she told Reuters in an interview.

    “We are angry at our government because it comes from the top, and they should have stood up for our community with strength. And they should have squashed the hatred rather than kind of ‌letting it slide,” she said.

    “We’ve been ignored. We feel like, are we not Australian enough? Do we not matter to ​our ‌government?”

    The attackers fired upon hundreds of ‍people at a Jewish ⁠festival during a roughly 10-minute killing spree, forcing people to flee and take shelter before both were shot by police.

    RISING ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS

    Antisemitic incidents have been rising in Australia since the war in Gaza erupted after Palestinian militant group Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis in an attack on October 7, 2023. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has since killed over 70,000 people, according to the enclave’s health ministry.

    A rise in such incidents in the past sixteen months prompted the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that antisemitism was his top priority in terms of threat.

    “This ​was not a surprise to the Jewish community. We warned the government of this many, many times over,” Teplitsky said.

    “We’ve had synagogues that have been graffitied, graffiti everywhere, and we’ve had synagogues that have been bombed,” she added, referring to a 2024 arson attack in Melbourne in which no one was killed.

    Teplitsky’s father Semyon, 86, bled heavily after being shot in the leg, and now is facing several operations as doctors piece bone back together with cement, then remove the cement from the leg, which he still may lose, she said.

    “He’s in good spirits, but he’s also very angry. Angry that this happened, that this was allowed to happen in Australia, the country that he took his children to, to be safe, to be away from antisemitism, to be away from Jew hatred.”

    Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin ​Netanyahu said on Monday that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “did nothing” to curb antisemitism.

    Albanese repeated on Tuesday Australia’s support for a two-state solution. Pro-Palestinian protests have been common in Australia since Israel launched its offensive.

    At a press briefing on Monday, Albanese read through a list of actions his government had taken, including criminalising hate speech and incitement to violence ​and a ban on the Nazi salute. He also pledged to extend funding for physical security for Jewish community groups.

    (Writing by Melanie Burton; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

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    Police seek person of interest in Brown University shooting; Rob Reiner and wife Michele found dead, son arrested.

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  • Increased Security at LA Hanukkah Events After Australia Shooting

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    The holiday runs through Dec. 22 

    The mass shooting in Australia on Sunday has prompted Los Angeles law enforcement to intensify protection of local Hanukkah celebrations.  

    “The Los Angeles Police Department is deeply saddened by the tragic mass shooting attack that occurred during a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, Australia,” it shared in a statement on Sunday. “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community in Australia and here in Los Angeles, and our thoughts are with the victims, their families and all those impacted by this senseless act of violence.”  

    The Dec. 14 massacre left 15 people dead and dozens injured. People had gathered that afternoon for a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach when suspected father and son gunmen, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, who is in custody, and 50-year-old Sajib Akram, who was shot and killed by officers, attacked. 

    At the time of posting, the LAPD noted there was no known threat to Los Angeles but assured its commitment to “protecting our diverse communities. As part of this commitment, the LAPD will provide extra patrols at Jewish facilities, schools, synagogues and at Hanukkah events throughout the city” and that it “will continue to work closely with our local, national and international partners” to monitor developments and ensure the safety of our city. Together, we can honor the spirit of Hanukkah by standing united against hate and violence.”  

    Hanukkah runs from Dec. 14 to 22. 

    Similarly, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department shared its plans to closely monitor and increase patrols of Jewish community spaces and Hanukkah gatherings. “If you see something, say something,” the LASD said in a statement.  

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  • Attack at Australian Hanukkah celebration underscores rise in antisemitism

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    Gunmen killed at least 15 people Sunday during Australia’s Bondi Beach Jewish community Hanukkah celebration. Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, joins CBS News with his reaction to the shooting.

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    At least 15 killed in attack on Hanukkah celebration in Australia; Trump pays respects to shooting victims.

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  • Sunday’s deadly Hanukkah mass shooting came amid a spike in antisemitic incidents in Australia. Were police prepared?

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    More than 1,000 people had gathered on Bondi Beach on a warm day to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah in Australia. In stark contrast to the joyful energy on the beach, a terror plot was underway, allegedly planned in advance by a father and son who opened fire with rifles into the crowd, with an improvised explosive device at the ready in their car.

    “This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called Sunday’s mass shooting “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians.” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said it was “designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.”

    Police should have been on high alert, given that it was a Hanukkah celebration and antisemitic threats and attacks have skyrocketed in Australia in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, according to data from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

    Yet the two assailants were allegedly able to fire shots toward the beach for more than five minutes, according to eyewitness accounts. Videos show the gunmen taking their time to aim, shoot and then duck from a bridge near the beach. One video shows a good Samaritan jumping on the back of one of the shooters and wrestling his gun away. Local media reported that the man who intervened, identified as 43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, suffered two gunshot wounds.

    “The first initial reaction wasn’t even by police, it was by civilians, which raised a lot of questions about the role of police,” said Oded Ailam, who worked in Israeli intelligence for two decades and reviewed videos of the attack for CBS News.

    Asked about police response time at a news conference Monday local time, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said, “I respect a person having an opinion, but I’ve been really clear: Our police responded promptly. Our police respond very promptly. We work closely with the Jewish community. We are very attuned with providing support to the Jewish community.”  

    Ailam told CBS News, “Everything points to this being a preplanned attack that was planned for a significant amount of time. The big question now is if Iran and Hezbollah will be implicated.”

    Australia earlier this year determined a series of previous arson attacks targeting a synagogue and a Kosher food provider had been directed by Iran, and moved to cut diplomatic ties over the incidents.

    “As a matter of principle, Iran condemns the violent attack against civilians in Sydney, Australia,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Sunday on social media. “Terror violence and mass killing shall be condemned, wherever they’re committed, as unlawful and criminal.”

    When asked by reporters about whether Sunday’s shooting was an intelligence failure, New South Wales officials waved off the questions and said their priority is keeping the community safe.

    The alleged assailants were a father and son duo originally from Pakistan, CBS News has learned. They had six firearms — purchased legally — and had assembled an improvised explosive device to target the Jewish gathering, according to authorities. 

    While shocking, the attack is not entirely surprising to people who track antisemitic attacks.

    Rising antisemitism in Australia

    Australia has been plagued by reports of antisemitic attacks and incidents in the two years following Oct. 7, 2023, according to new figures from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

    In one particularly notable incident last year, masked assailants conducted an arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne. Another arson attack was carried out at the kosher food provider Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney, also last year.

    Both attacks were determined by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) to be tied to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. In August, Prime Minister Albanese expelled Iran’s ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three other Iranian diplomats, citing the intelligence assessment concluding that Iran directed antisemitic arson attacks on Australian soil. 

    The ECAJ found antisemitic incidents in Australia remain at historically high levels — almost five times the average annual number before Oct. 7, 2023, which is the largest spike of any J7 country between 2021 and 2024. J7 refers to the seven countries with the largest Jewish communities outside Israel that form the J7 Task Force Against Antisemitism: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Argentina and Australia.

    The J7 Task Force met in Sydney less than one week before Sunday’s attack to discuss the growing security threat to the Jewish community in Australia.

    “This attack is not only the latest in a disturbing series of antisemitic incidents in Australia but also around the globe, including in the United States,” said Oren Segal, senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence at the Anti-Defamation League. “And these incidents are becoming increasingly violent.”

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  • In the Wake of Australia’s Hanukkah Beach Massacre

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    On Sunday, two gunmen killed at least fifteen people at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, in an attack that targeted the country’s Jewish community as it began its celebration of Hanukkah. At least forty more were wounded. The gunmen were father and son; the younger man is in custody and in critical condition, and the older man was killed. The gathering at Bondi Beach had been organized by Chabad, a branch of Orthodox Judaism that holds cultural and religious events around the world. Australia, like a number of countries, has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years, particularly since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, and the ensuing war in Gaza.

    I spoke by phone on Sunday with Michael Visontay, the commissioning editor of the Jewish Independent, which is based in Australia, and the author of the book “Noble Fragments.” Our conversation about the attack, the history of the Australian Jewish community, and the rise of antisemitism in Australia, is below.

    I read this morning that Australia had a higher proportion of Holocaust survivors than any other country except Israel. What can you tell us about the Jewish community in Australia?

    That’s absolutely true, and it is central to the identity and the ethos of the Jewish community in Australia, because it means that, as the generations have gone on, the sensibility and the sensitivity within the community to the threats of antisemitism, of prejudice, and of the echoes of the Holocaust from the Second World War, are much more pronounced here than they are virtually anywhere else. In America, there is a much more diverse array of Jews and of affiliations—there’s a large contingent of Reform Jews, and Jews of all sorts of different backgrounds. Whereas, in Australia, we are largely Holocaust-survivor stock, my own family included, and that has shaped our cultural and religious antennas very, very strongly.

    Melbourne has the biggest community, bigger than in Sydney. Melbourne’s Jewish community is largely Polish, and more insular and inward-looking than the Sydney population, which has a lot more Hungarian Jews, which is my own background. The Hungarian Jewish community was—I don’t know if “integrated” is the right word, but slightly more secular or outward-looking. There are parts of Melbourne where you could think you were in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There’s lots and lots of ultra-Orthodox Jews down in Melbourne.

    You said that many Australian Jews come from families that survived the Holocaust, and that that has had a profound effect on the Jewish community there. Can you talk more about that?

    Well, there are not necessarily pronounced religious components, and I am not sure you would call the community conservative, but certainly it is much more responsive to changes in society. The community-leadership groups are very outspoken, pressing for more legal and regulatory responses to racial vilification and religious vilification. And there’s been a history of even low-level incidents of antisemitism getting very strong responses from the Jewish community. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s a very strong underlying ethos that we’ve always got to be very, very vigilant about antisemitism. Personally, I felt, as I was growing up in Australia, that this was perhaps being overstated and a bit of crying wolf. But after October 7th I felt that I was mistaken and proved wrong.

    I read that antisemitic incidents in Australia were already starting to tick up in the years prior to October 7th, but that they got much worse after October 7th. Is that accurate?

    Yeah. So, after October 7th, there was an eruption, really, of anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli sentiment and behavior. It was both low-level and individual, but also expressed at sort of societal levels, with marches by pro-Palestinian groups into Jewish suburbs, and an indifference to Jewish solidarity with what had happened to Israel. There were a couple of particular incidents that I think really made a difference to people here. The first was on October 9th, after the New South Wales government lit up the Sydney Opera House with the colors of the Israeli flag, in solidarity—there was a pro-Palestinian march that took place, which ended up going to the opera house. Some of them seemed to shout, “Gas the Jews,” which was then subject to a police investigation to corroborate whether they actually said it. According to expert analysis, some people actually said, “Where’s the Jews?,” which, in a sense, was even worse. I’ve never heard that expression. Anyway, that sent a message of hostility, and made people feel that they were a target.

    And there were other incidents, too. There was just this great outpouring of hostility, which was felt very strongly by the community. And then there were all sorts of incidents that became higher profile, particularly in the past six to twelve months, with firebombings of synagogues, attacks on Jewish property, and so on. And some of those were shown to have been sponsored by Iran. [The Australian government claimed that Iran was behind attacks, last year, on a kosher deli and on a synagogue. Iran denied the accusation, and Australia expelled the Iranian Ambassador.] A climate of fear and anxiety had been sown by all of these incidents.

    I’ve read some of your past work, and I know you’re someone who believes that criticism of Israel, which you have lodged yourself, is not in itself antisemitic, even if sometimes criticism of Israel does take an antisemitic form. And I know the Israeli government has said that the Australian government’s recognition of a Palestinian state is part of what caused these incidents. What did you make of the Israeli government’s criticism?

    Benjamin Netanyahu’s attacks were just sort of a predictable lash-out, trying to, I guess, denigrate the Australian government because it had recognized Palestinian statehood. And my personal view is that the Australian government had done that as a result of the reports of starvation in Gaza earlier this year, and a number of other countries were doing the same at the time. I think the recognition was probably premature and not necessarily helpful, but I think that was the reason it occurred when it did. That is what triggered Netanyahu to lash out at the Australian government and accuse it of fostering antisemitism—a connection that was tenuous at best.

    In terms of criticizing the Israeli government, there’s still a place for it, and it needs to be done when it is appropriate, but it has become very difficult for people, certainly for Jewish people, to receive and digest legitimate criticism on its merit, because there’s been so much toxic bile levelled at Jews and Israelis. It’s become almost impossible to separate the arguments of legitimate criticism from the toxic messaging. And so many Jews have not seen the criticism as legitimate because they’ve got this view of, “Well, they just hate us, and this criticism is indistinguishable from hatred.” That is really one of the biggest casualties of what’s happened. The Israeli government needs to be called out for its bad behavior and policy and the things it says and does, but that criticism needs to be expressed in very precise terms. And, nevertheless, even when that does happen, many people just can’t accept it. And that’s very unfortunate because we need to be able to speak what’s on our minds fairly and precisely and not in a malicious way.

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  • Australia Bondi Beach shooting suspects identified as father and son

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    Two suspected gunmen accused of killing 15 people and injuring dozens during a Hanukkah celebration in Australia have been identified as a father and a son, authorities said Sunday.

    The 50-year-old father was shot and killed by police, and the 24-year-old son is hospitalized, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said at a news conference. At an earlier press conference, Australian police said they were looking for a potential third suspect, but Lanyon later confirmed that was no longer the case.

    “I can say that we are not looking for a further offender,” he said.

    The 24-year-old alleged assailant was identified as Naveed Akram, a Pakistani national, according to U.S. intelligence officials briefed on the investigation. CBS News has also reviewed Akram’s New South Wales driver’s license. 

    The name of the father has not been released, but authorities said Sunday they have identified him as a licensed gun owner. 

    Lanyon said investigators recovered six of the suspect’s licensed firearms at the scene. He added that the older suspect has had a gun licence for about ten years. Improvised explosive devices were also found in one of the suspects’ vehicles, police said.

    “We will look at the motives behind this attack and I think it is important as part of the investigation,” Lanyon said.

    More than 1,000 people were gathered at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the gunmen were “deliberately targeting the Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah.”

    The attack at the popular beach left at least 40 people injured, including two officers and three children, Australian officials said. 

    Also among the injured is 43-year-old fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, who had been shot after he confronted one of the gunmen and wrestled the weapon away, Agence France-Presse reported.

    One video posted to social media shows al Ahmed jump out from behind a parked car along Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach, tackle one of the suspects who had just fired his gun, and wrestle the weapon away.

    President Trump, during an event at the White House on Sunday, said al Ahmed’s actions “saved a lot of lives.”

    Anna Schecter, Emily Mae Czachor, Archie Clarke and Sam Vinograd contributed to this report.

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  • Fruit shop owner hailed a hero after tackling gunman who shot at Hanukkah celebration in Australia

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    A fruit shop owner who risked his life to disarm one of the gunmen during an antisemitic terror attack in Australia’s Bondi Beach is being hailed a hero for his actions.

    Authorities said two gunmen, a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son, killed at least 15 people and wounded many more during a Hanukkah celebration at the famous Sydney beach. The 50-year-old gunman was also killed and the 24-year-old was hospitalized in “serious condition,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said.

    Following the deadly shooting on Sunday, videos emerged on social media that showed a man crouched behind a parked car along Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach. One video shows him jump up and tackle one of the suspects, who had just fired his weapon toward something out of view.

    The man, who local Australian media identified as 43-year-old fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed, then wrestles the gun away and points it at the gunman, who backs away.

    Local outlet 7News reported that al Ahmed suffered two gunshot wounds.

    The outlet spoke to a man called Mustapha, who said he was his cousin.

    “He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside,” he said.

    “We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero 100%,” he said.

    Police officers stand guard at a cordoned zone following the mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025.

    Brent Lewin / Bloomberg via Getty Images


    The startling footage of the encounter has gone viral, and Ahmed was feted online for his bravery and lifesaving quick thinking, with many people saying he likely saved several lives.

    New South Wales Premier Chris Minns hailed al Ahmed a “genuine hero.”

    “In all of this evil, in all of this sadness, there are still wonderful, brave Australians that are prepared to risk their lives to help a complete stranger,” Minns told a press briefing late Sunday.

    U.S. President Trump, during an event at the White House on Sunday, said the man’s actions “saved a lot of lives.”

    “It’s been a very, very brave person, actually, who went and attacked frontally one of the shooters, and saved a lot of lives,” Mr. Trump said, adding the man “is right now in the hospital, pretty seriously wounded.”

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  • Hanukkah celebration in Australia targeted in antisemitic terrorist attack. Here’s what to know.

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    Officials said 16 people are dead after gunmen targeted the attendees of a Jewish community event on Sunday in Australia’s Bondi Beach. Another 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, including a child and two officers, according to police. Two of the suspects were identified as a father and a son, according to Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner of New South Wales.

    The 50-year-old father was killed, and the son — identified as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, a Pakistani national based in Sydney, according to a U.S. intelligence briefing and a driver’s license provided by Australian police — was in custody in critical but stable condition, Lanyon said.

    Australian officials and international leaders have condemned it as an antisemitic terrorist attack.

    Police said they expect the death toll to climb. Here is what we know so far.

    Gunfire broke out at a Hanukkah celebration

    The attack took place during a Jewish holiday celebration held to mark the first day of Hanukkah. More than 1,000 people were on the beach, in a suburb of Sydney, when shots rang out, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, who officially declared the shooting a “terrorist incident.”

    Numerous Australian officials have characterized the shooting as targeted. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said it “was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.”

    “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,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference. 

    Video footage recorded by civilians showed frightened crowds of beachgoers fleeing the area as gunshots went off in the background.

    Neither officials nor police have identified the victims of the attack. Chabad, a global organization representing a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, said Rabbi Eli Schlanger, with Chabad of Bondi, was among the dead, the Associated Press reported. Schlanger had been a key organizer of the Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach, according to the organization. 

    2 suspects identified as father and son

    Australian authorities said two gunmen were suspected of carrying out the deadly mass shooting, a rare occurrence in a country where gun violence is uncommon.

    Lanyon said the deceased suspect was previously known to the New South Wales police force. In addition to the 50-year-old gunman killed at the scene of the attack, another was hospitalized with serious injuries, he said. The surviving gunman, the 24-year-old son, has been taken into custody. The commissioner later said officers were not looking for an additional suspect.

    Six licensed firearms were found at the scene, Lanyon said, adding that they all belong to the father. The police commissioner added that the older suspect had a gun licence for about ten years.

    “We will look at the motives behind this attack and I think it is important as part of the investigation,” he said.

    A man has been lauded as a hero and praised by the police commissioner for tackling one suspect and disarming him in dramatic video footage recorded by a bystander along Campbell Parade, a main street that wraps around Bondi Beach. In the footage, the man could be seen crouched in hiding behind a parked car before wrestling the suspect and taking his weapon.

    Australian news outlets have identified the man seen disarming the suspect as fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, citing his relatives.

    Officers found explosive devices 

    Shortly after the shooting took place, officers who responded to the scene discovered a vehicle along Campbell Parade and believed there were several improvised explosive devices inside of it, Lanyon said. The vehicle was linked to the deceased gunman, according to the police commissioner. A rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene.

    Rising antisemitism in Australia

    Although Australia rarely experiences mass shootings, after implementing stringent gun reform laws in the wake of a deadly 1996 massacre in Tasmania’s Port Arthur, antisemitic incidents have been on the rise in the country since the war in Gaza began in 2023. 

    The Australian government appointed special envoys in 2024 to address spiking antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia, in its communities. But attacks still happened this year. One, in July, involved an arsonist who set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, while worshippers were inside.

    World leaders react

    The attack on Bondi Beach drew widespread condemnation from leaders across the globe. 

    In the U.S., Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke out against antisemitism in a social media post, which said: “Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia.” 

    Rubio joined officials from numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Finland, New Zealand, India, Qatar and Pakistan, who similarly shared remarks expressing sympathy for the victims and solidarity with Jewish communities, as well as denouncing antisemitism. 

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the officials in his country who responded publicly to the attack in Australia. In a statement released by his office, Netanyahu criticized Albanese for supporting a Palestinian state and said such support fuels antisemitism.

    “Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire,” Netanyahu’s statement read, quoting a letter that the Israeli prime minister said he wrote to Albanese in August. “It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”

    The American Jewish Committee, an advocacy group and charity organization, said the attack “comes after repeated warnings, including from the Australian Jewish community itself,” adding that “allowing antisemitic rhetoric and demonstrations to go unchecked can—and does—lead to violence and death.”

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  • A Timeline of Rising Antisemitism in Australia

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    A police detective walks near houses vandalized with anti-Israel slogans in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, Australia, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Credit – Mark Baker—Associated Press

    Two gunmen shot at a crowd of beachgoers in Sydney, Australia, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 30 during a Jewish holiday event at Bondi Beach on Sunday, in what Australian authorities are calling a terrorist attack.

    ​​The attack, which targeted an event marking the first day of Hanukkah at the popular tourist destination, is the latest and most deadly in a string of antisemitic incidents that have blighted Australia since the onset of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

    The subsequent sixteen months were sullied by firebombing, arson, graffiti, and hate speech incidents that prompted Mike Burgess, the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), to proclaim that his top priority in terms of threat to life is antisemitism.

    Read more: Bondi Beach Terror Attack: At Least 12 Killed as Gunmen Target Jewish Holiday Event

    Figures from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) show that antisemitic incidents in Australia have reached historically high levels, at “almost five times the average annual number before October 7, 2023.” The group documented 1,654 anti‑Jewish incidents across Australia between Oct. 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, in addition to 2,062 incidents nationwide the year before.

    Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial center, has repeatedly raised concerns about a dangerous rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia, including in personal meetings with the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales.

    Following an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in July, the center said that “not enough is being done.” It called on Australian authorities to “implement robust educational initiatives to combat hatred and to teach about the dire dangers of unchecked antisemitism.”

    Jewish leaders from the world’s seven largest diaspora communities convened in Sydney earlier this month to call for action against antisemitism in Australia.

    Speaking in the wake of the deadly attack on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had warned his Australian counterpart that the country’s policies were fueling antisemitism.

    “Three months ago I wrote to the Australian prime minister that your policy is pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism,” he said, referring to a letter he sent to Anthony Albanese in August following Canberra’s announcement that it would recognise Palestinian statehood.

    “Antisemitism is a cancer that spreads when leaders are silent and do not act,” Netanyahu added during a televised public address at an event in southern Israel.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the Bondi Beach attack on Sunday, calling it “evil” that was “beyond comprehension,” and convened a meeting of the country’s national security council.

    “This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy,” Albanese said, adding, “An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”

    Below is a timeline of antisemitic incidents in Australia over the last two years.

    May 25, 2024: Antisemitic graffiti at Jewish school

    Mount Scopus Memorial College, one of Australia’s largest and oldest Jewish schools in Melbourne’s east, was targeted in an antisemitic vandalism attack when the phrase “Jew die” was spray‑painted on the exterior fence of the school’s Burwood campus.

    Police in Victoria launched an investigation and appealed for public assistance, releasing CCTV footage of a person of interest riding a bicycle near the scene. The graffiti was widely condemned by politicians and community leaders as a deeply troubling act of hatred that has no place in Australian society, and raised concerns about rising antisemitism and student safety.

    Oct. 13, 2024: Jewish-owned bakery defaced

    A popular Jewish‑owned bakery in Sydney’s inner‑city suburb of Surry Hills was defaced with antisemitic graffiti and a threatening note, heightening concerns about rising hate incidents. Avner’s Bakery, owned by local TV chef Ed Halmagyi, had an inverted red triangle—a symbol associated with both Nazi persecution and used by some extremists to mark Jewish targets— spray‑painted on its window.

    Police said the offensive graffiti was reported at the Bourke Street premises, and a handwritten note reading “Be careful” was found slipped under the door. Halmagyi shared the note on social media, calling the incident “Being Jewish in Sydney, 2024 edition,” and NSW Police launched an investigation. Community leaders condemned the attack as a troubling expression of antisemitic intimidation.

    Oct. 17, 2024: Brewery arson

    The front door of the Curly Lewis Brewing Company, a popular brewery near Bondi Beach in Sydney’s east, was deliberately set on fire in the early hours of the morning. CCTV and court documents show two men poured accelerant underneath the front door and ignited it before fleeing; the blaze self‑extinguished after a short time thanks to the building’s sprinkler system, but caused significant damage to the entrance.

    Police later linked the arson to a broader investigation into antisemitic attacks in Sydney, although authorities say the brewery was likely mistakenly targeted instead of a nearby kosher deli, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen. Two men — Guy Finnegan and Craig Bantoft — later pleaded guilty to the fire charge, with officers investigating whether they were acting on instructions from an unknown figure.

    Oct. 20, 2024: Kosher deli attack

    The kosher deli Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney’s Bondi suburb was deliberately set alight in an antisemitic arson attack, causing extensive damage. As part of a broader task force investigation into a series of antisemitic incidents, police charged former biker gang member Sayed Moosawi in March 2025 with allegedly directing two men to torch both Lewis’ Continental Kitchen and nearby Curly Lewis Brewing Company to distract police resources; Moosawi denied the charges and was released on bail.

    Australian authorities later said intelligence from the national security agency found credible evidence that Iran’s government played a role in the Oct. 20 attack on the kosher deli, a claim that led Canberra to expel Iran’s ambassador and accuse Tehran of undermining social cohesion through antisemitic violence.

    Nov. 21, 2024: Rampage in Jewish community 

    In a brazen antisemitic attack in Woollahra, a leafy eastern suburb of Sydney that has a significant Jewish community, a car was set on fire, and multiple vehicles and buildings were vandalised with anti‑Israel and antisemitic graffiti in the early hours of the morning. Police said about 10 cars, including one torched vehicle, were spray‑painted with slogans such as “f*** Israel,” while properties and a nearby restaurant were also defaced. Fire crews extinguished the blaze, and authorities estimated more than $100,000 in damage.

    The incident drew condemnation from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Premier Chris Minns and local leaders. Albanese called it a “deeply troubling” and “disgusting” act of hate and vowed police would investigate. The attack was investigated under a strike force handling a string of antisemitic incidents in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

    Dec. 6, 2024: Synagogue arson

    In the early hours before dawn, masked men broke into the Adass Israel Synagogue in the Ripponlea suburb of Melbourne and firebombed the place of worship, pouring accelerant inside and setting it alight, causing extensive damage to the building and its interior. The blaze, which drew dozens of firefighters, was later treated by police as a suspected terror attack and became a central focus of a Joint Counter‑Terrorism Team investigation involving Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, and national security agencies. Community members inside at the time fled as flames spread, and Jewish leaders described the attack as a shocking escalation of antisemitic violence in Australia.

    Prime Minister Albanese condemned the attack as an “outrage” and pledged support for the Jewish community. In August 2025, authorities charged two men in connection with the synagogue firebombing as part of the broader terrorism‑linked probe. Days later, Albanese said intelligence assessments showed the Iranian government had directed the attack, prompting diplomatic action and highlighting growing concerns about foreign influence behind some antisemitic incidents on Australian soil.

    Dec. 7, 2024: Netanyahu blames Australian government

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly linked the recent wave of antisemitic attacks in Australia to what he described as the Australian government’s “anti‑Israel” stance at the United Nations, including Canberra’s vote for a resolution critical of Israel’s policies. Netanyahu said that support for such U.N. positions made it “impossible to separate” antisemitic violence, such as the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, from Australia’s diplomatic position on the Israel‑Palestine conflict. His comments drew criticism from Australian officials, who rejected the suggestion that government policy was to blame for the attacks.

    Dec. 9, 2024: Antisemitism task force launched

    The Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced the launch of a dedicated antisemitism task force, known as Special Operation Avalite, to investigate a spate of antisemitic threats, violence and hate incidents across the country. The unit, established in the wake of the Dec. 6 firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and other attacks, is staffed with counterterrorism investigators and works with state and territory police to target high‑harm antisemitism against Jewish communities and public figures. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the task force would enhance national efforts to hold perpetrators accountable.

    Dec. 11, 2024: Jewish neighborhood attacked again 

    The eastern Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a large Jewish community, was attacked for the second time in as many months as police found a car set on fire and multiple homes and buildings vandalised with antisemitic and anti‑Israel graffiti, including a misspelled slogan reading “Kill Israiel.” Officers established a crime scene on Magney Street and were seeking two male suspects seen fleeing the area. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Albanese condemned the attack as a “hate crime” and “outrage,” with police pledging increased patrols and investigation under a broader antisemitism task force.

    Jan. 7, 2025: Worshippers threatened 

    A 20‑year‑old man was charged after allegedly making threatening gestures toward worshippers near the Chabad North Shore synagogue and Kehillat Masada synagogue in Sydney’s north‑west suburb of St Ives. Police allege the man made a gun‑like hand gesture at pedestrians exiting the synagogues on Link Road on Jan. 4, prompting reports to police and a subsequent arrest at a home in North Turramurra. He was charged with stalking or intimidating with intent to cause fear of physical harm and was granted conditional bail to appear in Hornsby Local Court later in January. The alleged threat came amid a broader wave of reported antisemitic incidents across Sydney.

    Jan. 10, 2025: Hitler graffiti 

    The Allawah Synagogue in southern Sydney was vandalised early Friday with multiple swastikas and other antisemitic graffiti, including the words “Hitler on top,” sprayed on the exterior walls of the place of worship. NSW Police said the incident occurred around 3:55 a.m. and released CCTV footage showing two people in dark clothing near the synagogue. State Premier Chris Minns condemned the act as a “monstrous” hate crime, and police launched a hate‑crime investigation under Operation Shelter. Jewish community leaders called for swift arrests, saying the attack was deeply troubling and had no place in Australia’s multicultural society.

    Jan. 11, 2025: Synagogue vandalized 

    Newtown Synagogue in Sydney’s inner west was vandalised with red swastikas and other Nazi‑linked graffiti, and police said vandals attempted to set the building on fire by pouring an accelerant that burned briefly before going out. Officers released CCTV images showing two people of interest and counterterrorism detectives took over the investigation, calling it an escalation in antisemitic crime. On the same day, a house in Sydney’s east was also defaced with antisemitic graffiti, prompting a broader police response. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns condemned the incidents as unacceptable and heightened police scrutiny under a broader antisemitism probe.

    Jan. 16, 2025: Task force makes first arrest

    The Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) Special Operation Avalite made its first arrest in Sydney when a 44‑year‑old man from Blacktown was charged with allegedly posting death threats to members of a Jewish organisation on social media. He was charged with using a carriage service to make a threat to kill and to menace, harass or cause offence — offences that carry up to 10 and five years’ imprisonment, respectively — and was granted watch‑house bail ahead of a Downing Centre Local Court appearance later in February. The AFP seized electronic devices and documents during a search of his home as part of the ongoing investigation into high‑harm antisemitic conduct.

    Jan. 17, 2025: Cars set alight

    Two cars were set on fire, and four vehicles in total were damaged, while a house was vandalised with red paint in the Sydney suburb of Dover Heights in an antisemitic attack. The property was formerly owned by Alex Ryvchin, the co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

    Jan. 19, 2025: Hate crime laws announced

    New South Wales Premier Chris Minns announced a suite of tougher hate‑crime and anti‑protest laws aimed at strengthening protections against antisemitism and racial hatred. The legislative package included new offences targeting harassment, intimidation or blocking of people entering or leaving places of worship, penalties for displaying Nazi symbols near sacred sites, and expanded police powers to give “move‑on” directions to protesters in or near places of worship. Minns said the measures were necessary to ensure people of faith can practise their religion free from intimidation and to address a recent spate of antisemitic attacks in the state.

    Jan. 21, 2025: Childcare center defaced

    A childcare centre in Sydney’s east was set alight and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti early Tuesday, causing extensive damage to the unoccupied building less than 200 metres from the Maroubra Synagogue. The words “F*** the Jews” were found amid the vandalism, and police established a crime scene as part of an ongoing hate‑crime investigation. NSW and federal leaders condemned the attack as “despicable” and “horrifying,” and authorities continued efforts to identify and arrest suspects. Police also charged a woman in connection with a Dec. 11 antisemitic vandalism incident in Sydney’s east. In response to the escalation of antisemitic attacks, Prime Minister Albanese convened a national cabinet meeting to coordinate a whole‑of‑government response to the rising wave of antisemitism.

    Jan. 29, 2025: Potential terror threat

    New South Wales police confirmed that a caravan found in Dural, in Sydney’s northwest, containing a significant quantity of explosives and antisemitic‑linked material was under investigation as a potential terror threat after it was reported to authorities earlier in January. Officers from state and federal counter‑terrorism units, including the Australian Federal Police and ASIO, treated the discovery as an escalation amid a wave of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish sites. Police said the caravan was first noticed on Jan. 19, with the explosive material capable of a large blast radius, and included a note referencing Jewish targets. Authorities later determined the plot was likely a fabricated plan orchestrated by organised crime figures to distract police resources rather than a credible terror attack, with investigators calling it a “fake terrorism plot.”

    Feb. 12, 2025: Threats to Jewish patients

    Two nurses at Bankstown‑Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney’s west were suspended and their nursing registrations barred nationwide after a video circulating on TikTok and other social platforms appeared to show them threatening to kill Jewish or Israeli patients and saying they would refuse to treat them if they presented for care. The clip, which unfolded during an online conversation with an Israeli social media user, drew widespread condemnation from political and health leaders, with New South Wales officials calling the remarks “vile, disgusting and unacceptable.” NSW Police and health authorities launched a criminal investigation into possible offences, including using a carriage service to menace, harass or threaten to kill, and both nurses were stood down pending that probe.

    July 4, 2025: Arson attack on Shabbat

    About 20 worshippers attending a Shabbat dinner at the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation were forced to evacuate through a rear exit after a man poured flammable liquid on the front door and set it alight, prompting firefighters to extinguish the blaze. No one was injured, and police later arrested a 34‑year‑old Sydney man, Angelo Loras, charging him with arson, reckless conduct endangering life, criminal damage by fire, and possession of a controlled weapon; he was remanded in custody. Authorities were also investigating whether the synagogue arson was linked to a separate disturbance that night at an Israeli‑owned restaurant in the city’s central business district, where protesters clashed with patrons and police. The incident was condemned by federal and state leaders as a targeted act of violence amid a broader pattern of antisemitic attacks in Australia.

    Dec. 14, 2025: Bondi Beach terror attack 

    Sunday’s attack at Bondi Beach, Sydney, on the first day of Hanukkah killed at least 12 and injured 30 people, including two police officers.

    Contact us at letters@time.com.

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  • Gunmen kill at least 11 in attack targeting Australia’s Bondi Beach Jewish community Hanukkah celebration, officials say

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    At least 11 people were shot and killed in an attack targeting a Jewish gathering on Sunday, the first day of Hanukkah, on Australia’s Bondi Beach, according to Australian government officials and police.

    One of two gunmen identified in the shooting was also dead, and the second was hospitalized “in serious condition,” police said. Another 29 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including two officers and a child.

    The shooting took place at a celebration called Hanukkah by the Sea, held to mark the beginning of the Jewish holiday observed from sundown on Sunday until Monday, Dec. 22. More than 1,000 were at the beach when gunfire broke out, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon at a news conference on Sunday. Lanyon called the attack a “terrorist incident.” New South Wales is the Australian state where Bondi Beach is located, in a suburb of Sydney.

    New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the attack “was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also characterized the shooting as “a targeted attack on Jewish Australians.”

    “This afternoon, there has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi and the Hanukkah by the Sea celebration,” said Albanese at a news conference he convened in the wake of the shooting. “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.”

    Lanyon said police found an explosive device in a car, linked to the deceased suspect. A rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene on Bondi Beach, he said.

    Police were not releasing more information on the gunmen implicated in the shooting, according to Lanyon, although he said at Sunday’s conference that officers were investigating whether a third gunman was involved.

    Images and video footage have emerged from the scene of the attack, showing the injured being wheeled away on stretchers by first responders. One video appeared to show someone wrestling with one of the suspected gunmen and taking his weapon from him, according to Minns, who paid tribute to that individual.

    “The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing,” said Albanese in a statement. “My thoughts are with every person affected.”

    Mass shootings in Australia are rare. But researchers have recorded dramatic upticks in antisemitic incidents in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, along with spikes in hate incidents against Muslim groups. 

    In response, the Australian government appointed special envoys last year to address antisemitism and Islamophobia in its communities. However, attacks have continued to happen since then. In July, an arsonist set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, another major Australian city, seven months after a different synagogue in the same city was burned by criminals in a blaze that injured one worshipper.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    The Associated Press

    contributed to this report.

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  • At least 9 dead after shooting in Sydney’s Bondi Beach

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    Two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.

    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. It is the deadliest shooting in almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws.

    One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second, who was arrested, was in critical condition, authorities said. Police said one of the gunmen was known to the security services, but that there had been no specific threat.

    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.

    Police said officers were examining a number of suspicious items, including several improvised explosive devices found in one of the suspect’s cars.

    The shooting targeted a Jewish celebration

    “This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said. He said it was declared a terrorist attack due to the event targeted and weapons used.

    The violence erupted at the end of a hot summer day when thousands had flocked to Bondi Beach, including hundreds who had gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.

    Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach centers around the world and sponsors public events during major Jewish holidays, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event.

    Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but gave no further details.

    Police said emergency services were called to Campbell Parade in Bondi about 6:45 p.m. responding to reports of shots being fired. Video footage filmed by onlookers showed people in bathing suits running from the water as shots rang out. Separate footage appeared to show two men with long guns firing from a footbridge leading to the beach.

    One dramatic clip broadcast on Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.

    Minns called the unidentified man a “genuine hero.”

    Witnesses fled and hid as shots rang out

    Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, told The Associated Press he was waiting for his family nearby when he heard shots. He dropped the beer he was carrying and ran.

    “You heard a few pops, and I freaked out and ran away. … I started sprinting. I just had that intuition. I sprinted as quickly as I could,” Moran said. He said he heard shooting off and on for about five minutes.

    “Everyone just dropped all their possessions and everything and were running and people were crying and it was just horrible,” Moran said.

    Local resident Catherine Merchant said “it was the most perfect day and then this happened.

    “Everyone was just running and there were bullets and there were so many of them and we were really scared,” she told Australia’s ABC News.

    Australian leaders express shock and grief

    Albanese told reporters in the Australian capital, Canberra, that he was “devastated” by the massacre.

    “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,” Albanese said.

    He vowed that the violence would be met with “a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith.”

    King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were “appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack.”

    United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on X that he was horrified, and his “heart is with the Jewish community worldwide.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the “ghastly terrorist attack.”

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was being updated on the “appalling attack.” Police in London said they would step up security at Jewish sites.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X that “the United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world.”

    Antisemitic attacks have roiled Australia

    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, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response, the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.

    Throughout last summer, the country was rocked by a 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 lives.

    Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. The authorities didn’t make such claims about Sunday’s massacre.

    Israel urged Australia’s government to address crimes targeting Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he warned Australia’s leaders months ago in a letter about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision — in line with scores of other countries — to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”

    “Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia … and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said.

    Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Australia’s government should “fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”

    Shooting deaths in Australia are rare

    Mass shootings in Australia are extremely rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.

    Significant mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five people in 2014, and seven in 2018, in which gunmen killed their own families and themselves.

    In 2022, six people were killed in a shootout between police and Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.

    ___

    McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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    Kristen Gelineau | The Associated Press, Charlotte Graham-mclay | The Associated Press and Rod Mcgurk | The Associated Press

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  • Skydiver dangles at 15,000 feet after parachute catches on plane’s tail in Australia

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    MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian accident investigators on Thursday released dramatic images of a skydiver’s parachute becoming entangled on an airplane’s tail, leaving him dangling at 4,500 meters (15,000 feet.)

    The skydiver, Adrian Ferguson, used a hook knife to cut himself free and sustained minor leg injuries during the incident on Sept. 20 that began at Tully Airport in Queensland state. The pilot and 16 other parachutists on board the Cessna Caravan that day were not hurt.

    The Australian Transport Safety Bureau released the video with its report on its investigation into the mishap.

    The plane had reached the desired altitude where the skydivers were planning to execute a 16-way formation jump. A 17th parachutist was at an open door waiting to record video as the others jumped.

    Ferguson was leaving the plane when the ripcord of his reserve chute became snagged on a wing flap, the report said.

    The chute released and immediately jerked Fergson backward. He knocked the camera operator clear from the plane and into a free fall. Ferguson’s legs then struck the trail’s horizontal stabilizer before the chute tangled around it and left him dangling.

    Ferguson used a knife to cut 11 lines that enabled him to fall from the plane with part of the torn chute.

    He released his main chute, which fully inflated despite becoming entangled with remnants of the reserve chute, and he landed safely.

    Meanwhile, most of the other skydivers had jumped. The pilot was left with two skydivers aboard battling to control the plane with part of the chute still tangled around the tail.

    The pilot made a mayday call and was prepared to bail out wearing an emergency chute. But Brisbane air traffic authorities decided he had enough control of the plane to land safely at Tully. It landed without incident.

    “Carrying a hook knife — although it is not a regulatory requirement — could be lifesaving in the event of a premature reserve parachute deployment,” the bureau’s chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said.

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