On 14 December 2025, an antisemitic and Islamic State (IS)–inspired terrorist attack occurred at the Archer Park area of Bondi Beach in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, during a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah attended by around 1,000 people. Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed Akram, allegedly shot dead 15 people: 11 men, 3 women, and a 10-year-old girl. Sajid (an Indian national and Australian permanent resident) was shot dead by police; his son Naveed (an Australian-born citizen) was treated for wounds at a local hospital and survived. The IS later claimed credit for the attack.
Naveed is now on remand in Goulburn Correctional Centre awaiting trial for 15 murders and 63 other offences. Over the course of the attack, five civilians confronted and attempted to stop the gunmen. Three were killed and one suffered gunshot wounds. Surf lifesavers and other first responders rushed to the scene to provide first aid during the active shooting. Members of the New South Wales Police Force shot the two alleged gunmen, killing Sajid and critically injuring Naveed, who was detained. Forty people, including two police officers, were injured and taken to various hospitals in Sydney.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the shooting was "deliberately targeted at the Jewish community on the first day of Chanukah". The ongoing investigation by federal and New South Wales police forces is named "Operation Arques". A federal royal commission will examine the circumstances surrounding the attack.
The Bondi shooting is the first fatal attack on Jews in Australia, the worst terrorist attack in Australia, and the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in which 35 people were killed. Mass casualty attacks are uncommon in Australia; the country enacted strict gun laws in response to the Port Arthur massacre. Following the Bondi Beach shooting, the National Cabinet unanimously agreed to further restrict gun laws and introduce a gun buyback program. The attack led to changes to federal hate speech laws and was marked by a national day of reflection and a national day of mourning. In New South Wales, the attack led to changes to terrorism and protest laws.
Background
Religious and racial intolerance in Australia
The December 2025 attack in Bondi was the first deadly attack targeting Jews in Australia. Prior to this incident, the Australian Jewish community experienced an increase in antisemitic attacks on Jewish individuals and institutions since the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023. The shooting targeted an annual community Hanukkah celebration organised by Chabad named "Chanukah by the Sea". The event was held at Archer Park just east of the Bondi Pavilion, with around 1,000 people in attendance.
Islamic State
In the 2010s, around 500 Australians who supported the self-declared Islamic State (IS) attempted to migrate to, or succeeded in migrating to, its territory in Iraq and Syria. Many of those who migrated were killed in combat, but dozens of survivors remain in camps guarded by Kurdish forces in Rojava in Syria.
Beginning in 2014, IS directed its supporters around the world to commit "lone wolf" attacks.
Since then, there have been other Islamic State–inspired lone wolf attacks, often on Jewish or Christian festivals.
However, Islamic State has not historically focused on the Palestine conflict with Israel.
Violence and terrorism in Australia
Mass casualty terrorism is rare in Australia. The Bondi Beach shooting is the worst terrorist attack committed in Australia. According to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC), prior to the Bondi Beach shooting, there had been eleven successful jihadi attacks in Australia since the start of the 21st century, resulting in a total of seven fatalities excluding perpetrators and each of which resulted in no more than two people being killed. In addition, the CTC found 22 foiled jihadi plots during the same time period. The CTC attributed these numbers to "a combination of good fortune, gun control measures, and effective counterterrorism (including the extensive use of travel restrictions to prevent local jihadis from gaining training experience abroad)".
In August 2024, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) raised Australia's national terrorism threat level from "possible" to "probable", citing the risk of community tensions and political violence related to the Gaza war as one of the reasons for doing so.
About a month before the attack, Mossad warned Australian intelligence about possible attacks from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Australian Financial Review said Mossad was helping ASIO.
The Bondi Beach shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Australia's strict gun laws – including restrictions on automatic, semi-automatic, and pump-action rifles, as well as shotguns – were introduced after 35 people were killed in that shooting. Despite this, the number of firearms in Australia, and the number of people licensed to own them, has increased, and hit "a record high" before the shootings. In New South Wales, where the Bondi Beach shooting took place, there were 260,000 gun licences in 2025, up from 181,000 in 2001.
Attack
During the start of the attack, Boris and Sofia Gurman, a Russian-Jewish Australian couple, noticed an Islamic State flag displayed on a parked vehicle. One gunman was already firing his weapon on the footbridge, while another exited the vehicle, at which point the Gurmans struggled with him, seizing his gun. The second gunman then retrieved another rifle, and one or both of the attackers shot them dead.
Police allege that Sajid and Naveed Akram, a father and son, threw three pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb into the crowd from a footbridge arching over the carpark to the north of the Bondi Pavilion, all of which failed to detonate. After throwing the bombs, they began shooting into the crowd. Videos of the attack showed two men dressed in black tops firing on the crowd from the footbridge, reportedly with a straight-pull bolt-action rifle and a shotgun. A nearly continuous 11-minute video, recorded by a bystander and beginning shortly after the gunmen opened fire, filmed the attackers from the street side of the footbridge approximately 50 metres (160 ft) away. The video includes the final moments of the shooting, including the first police officer stepping onto the footbridge to apprehend the gunmen, as well as treatment of the wounded.
The gunmen fired repeatedly at Archer Park, shooting several attendees and trapping dozens of others within the fencing bordering the festival. The younger gunman paused and appeared to wave away bystanders approaching him from directions other than that of the Hanukkah celebration, before resuming fire at the Jewish gathering. During the attack, bystander footage filmed Reuven Morrison confronting one of the attackers, apparently to draw the gunfire away from others.
As one of the attackers left the footbridge and walked towards the festival, he was disarmed by Ahmed al-Ahmed, an unarmed 43-year-old Syrian Australian Muslim and father of two. Al-Ahmed approached him by crouching between two parked cars. He then tackled the gunman from behind, seized the weapon, and turned it toward him before propping the weapon against a tree. Al-Ahmed was accompanied by Gefen Bitton, an Israeli citizen living in Australia who ran back towards the gunfire after seeing al-Ahmed confronting the attacker.
After the first gunman was disarmed, the second gunman reacted by briefly leaving the footbridge and firing three shots towards al-Ahmed and Bitton, injuring the latter. The disarmed gunman retreated to the footbridge; as he did, Morrison charged at him and threw a brick at him. Upon returning to the bridge, the disarmed gunman retrieved another weapon. At that point, al-Ahmed was shot twice and wounded, and Morrison was killed.
Several police officers responded to the scene and used their pistols to shoot at the gunmen from both sides of the footbridge. A detective, using a tree as cover approximately 40 metres (130 ft) away, fired on the gunmen from behind, killing one of them with a fatal shot to the head. The second gunman was shot twice in the stomach and wounded, apparently by the detective and a female officer. Another Muslim bystander, a refugee from Iran, also rushed to help. However, he has remained anonymous in the media; the ABC referred to him as "AB". AB approached the bridge, intending to disarm one gunman, unaware that there were two. He reached the bridge soon after the Akrams were shot, but he managed to kick the gun away from Naveed, who was still alive. Then police fired on AB as well as the gunmen, and AB was nearly shot. In March 2026, the ABC reported that the Australian Government was trying to deport AB to Nauru, due to drug and assault convictions, that his immigration lawyer says are related to untreated trauma from his experiences in Iran. The attack had lasted for six minutes from 18:42 to 18:48.
According to The Guardian, the first thing police did when they reached the footbridge was give CPR to Naveed. The wounded Naveed was apprehended by police and rushed to hospital in critical condition. According to the ABC, the gunmen fired a total of 82 rounds (61 from Naveed and 21 from Sajid) during the attack, with police firing an additional 26 rounds.
Emergency services were first called to the scene at about 18:45 (AEDT, UTC+11). Police released a statement at 18:57 confirming their response to an ongoing incident. More than 123 ambulance personnel attended the scene.
First aid
Dozens of on-duty lifesavers, along with many off-duty lifesavers who were present in the area for their clubs' annual Christmas parties, rushed to the aid of victims under fire at the risk to their own lives. They were on the unsecured scene before police and ambulance crews arrived. They used surfboards as stretchers and depleted the club's stock of bandages, as well as giving approximately 250 people shelter inside the club, including a heavily pregnant woman who went into labour during the attack. One lifesaver performed water rescues while the scene was under fire. New South Wales Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane arrived minutes after the attack began and helped provide first aid to victims.
Casualties
Sixteen people were killed in the attack (including gunman Sajid Akram, who was killed at the scene by police), with fourteen having died at the scene and two in a hospital. Forty people were injured and taken to a hospital, including the other alleged gunman, Naveed Akram. Five people required extended hospitalisation into 2026.
List of victims killed
The fifteen victims killed in the shooting were:
- Edith Brutman, 68, vice president of B'nai B'rith NSW anti-prejudice and anti-discrimination committee
- Dan Elkayam, 27, a French national who played for Rockdale Ilinden FC and worked as an IT analyst for NBCUniversal
- Boris, 69, and Sofia Gurman, 61, who disarmed the older gunman on his arrival but were killed with another rifle
- Alex Kleytman, 87, a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to Australia from Ukraine and worked as a civil engineer
- Yaakov Levitan, 39, a South African–born rabbi who was secretary of Sydney Beth Din
- Matilda, 10, the youngest fatality; a student at La Perouse Public School, born to Ukrainian immigrants
- Peter Meagher, 61, retired police detective and Randwick DRUFC manager who was hired as a freelance photographer at Chanukah by the Sea
- Reuven Morrison, 62, a Soviet-born businessman who threw an object at the older gunman before being killed
- Marika Pogany, 82, a Czechoslovak-born Australian who delivered meals and services to Jewish seniors
- Eli Schlanger, 41, Israeli-Australian dual citizen, assistant rabbi of Chabad and chaplain for Corrective Services NSW
- Adam Smyth, 50, a Bondi local taking a walk with his wife
- Boris Tetleroyd, 68, a Soviet-born singer who was attending the event with his son, who was injured
- Tania Tretiak, 68, a Soviet-born Randwick resident who attended the event with her Jewish husband and granddaughter
- Tibor Weitzen, 78, a Soviet-born automotive engineer who died shielding his wife and Edith Brutman
Wounded
Without consent, Liverpool Hospital in Western Sydney changed the name of wounded victim Rosalia Shikhverg to "Karen Jones" and removed the reference to Judaism as her religion in their records while she was a patient there.
The story was reported in early January by Nine News, who interviewed the former patient on their Today program. When the interviewer asked if the hospital explained their reasons, she replied, "they said it's for my safety, keep away the media from me, that's what they answer, nothing, nothing else". Then, on 27 January 2026, Sky News Australia interviewed Shikhverg and she told them, "Well, in my opinion, they were afraid of staff, not media… They can’t trust their own staff".
In a follow-up interview, also with Sky News Australia, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said about the incident, "We know that Jewish Australians in our health care system have been nervous about antisemitism in health care".
Some of the survivors sought suppression orders to prevent the publication of their names by news media.
The suppression orders were first offered in December, shortly after the attack. In April 2026, more survivors took the option to protect their identities.
Accused
The alleged shooters were a father and son duo: 50-year-old Sajid (died 14 December 2025) and 24-year-old Naveed Akram (born 12 August 2001). Sajid was a fruit shop owner and Naveed an unemployed bricklayer.
Sajid Akram
Sajid migrated to Australia in 1998 on a student visa after completing a business degree in Hyderabad, India. According to the Australian home affairs minister, Tony Burke, he transferred to a partner visa in 2001 and later obtained a resident return visa because he was an Australian permanent resident.