A Muslim father and son apparently inspired by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) shot dead 15 innocents and wounded dozens at a Jewish event on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach yesterday.
The shooters, 50 and 24 years old and dressed in the black attire evocative of ISIS, opened fire at 1847 from a pedestrian bridge at a grassy area adjoining the beach where a Hanukkah celebration organized by the ultra-Orthodox movement Chabad was underway.
They reportedly fired discriminately, aiming at people who appeared to be Jewish.
The massacre continued for 10 minutes before the father was shot dead and the son critically wounded by police.
Lives likely were saved by the 43-year-old Muslim fruit shop owner who was shot in the hand and arm while singlehandedly tackling and taking a long gun from one of the assailants.
The dead ranged in age from 10 to 87 and included citizens of France, Slovakia and Ukraine. Forty-two people were hospitalized, including two police officers who responded to the scene.
The older assailant, who arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, legally owned the firearms used in the attack.
His Australia-born son came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) in 2019 for his association with young local Islamic extremists who were jailed but was not considered to pose an immediate threat in recent years.
An ISIS flag was draped on the hood of the vehicle they drove to the scene.
Father and son lived in Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s southwest.
The Bondi Beach terror attack was reminiscent of the 2 October deadly attack outside a synagogue in Manchester, England by a 35-year-old Briton of Syrian origin who pledged loyalty to ISIS in a phone call amid his rampage.
His target clearly was Jews worshipping in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.
Two innocents were killed and three wounded in the attack, in which the assailant at 0930 rammed a vehicle into people outside the building and then stabbed them.
Security guards and worshippers prevented the assailant from entering the synagogue.
Police responded to the scene within seven minutes and fatally shot the assailant as he tried to force his way in.
Amid their response, police shot two innocents, including one of those who died.
It is distinctly possible that the assailants in both Bondi Beach and Manchester were riled by the Gaza war.
With that conflict spurring anti-Semitism, Jewish communities around the world have stepped up security.
The presence of private security guards near the entrance to the Manchester synagogue likely saved lives while the apparent lack of security in Bondi Beach cost lives.
The Manchester casualties were inflicted outside the building, illustrating the difficulties of securing peripheries of potential attack targets.
Jewish communities around the world should bolster security.
Australia has strict gun laws, making mass shootings relatively rare.
The ASIO in February 2025 in its annual security threat assessment said that the national terrorism threat alert level would remain “probable” for the foreseeable future.
The risk rating was “probable” for eight years up to November 2022, when it was lowered a notch to “possible” after ISIS lost allure among Australian Muslims in the wake of its complete military defeat in the Middle East. Risks of organized terrorist attacks on Australian soil diminished.
The ASIO restored the risk rating to “probable” in August 2024, citing increasing radicalization among young local Muslims and inter-communal tensions over the Israel-Hamas war. It said rapid ideological indoctrination through social media and lone-wolf, primitive attacks had become a bigger concern than ever.
In the view of this service, Islamic terrorism risks in Australia and the United States roughly are on par.
