In the fading light, they came back to Bondi, to light candles, to sing and to stand together, in solidarity and in defiance of the terror that had been visited upon their beach, their world.
Across Bondi, and Sydney, and Australia, people lit candles in solidarity with the Jewish community which suffered the worst antisemitic attack in the country’s history when two gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Hanukah celebration at Bondi Beach shortly after 6:40pm on Sunday evening.
Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, a London-born rabbi whose fifth child was born only two months ago, and an 87-year-old survivor of the Holocaust, were among the slain.
The “Chanukah by the Sea” event had promised faith and fraternity.
“Come celebrate the light of Chanukah together with the community,” a promotional flyer said, “bring your friends, bring the family, let’s fill Bondi with joy and light”.
Instead, the event brought darkness, brought terror.
The candles are now lit in memory. The songs are mourning songs.
“I would … join with others who have urged Australians across the country to light a candle,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said, “put it in their front window … to show that light will indeed defeat darkness – part of what Hanukah celebrates.
“We are stronger than the cowards who did this.”
The two alleged attackers were a father and son from Bonnyrigg, in Sydney’s west.
Fifty-year-old Sajid Akram was licensed to own six firearms. Police believe it was these guns that were used in the attack. His son Naveed is 24.
Sajid was shot and killed by police. Naveed was critically injured: he is now in hospital under police guard.
Albanese made an agreement with the states on Monday to introduce tougher gun control laws following the beachside attack, the worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania in 1996, in which 35 people were killed. That outrage catalysed strict gun controls on semi-automatic and automatic firearms and a government-enforced buy-back of more than 650,000 weapons.
The prime minister said proposed reforms would include limiting the number of firearms a single person could own, and regular audits of existing licences.
“People’s circumstances can change. People can be radicalised over a period of time. Licences should not be in perpetuity,” he said.
Much of the attack was captured on phone footage which is circulating among community WhatsApp groups and on social media.
One 10-minute video shows almost the entire attack unfolding. The attackers can be seen taking up positions on a stone footbridge, which offers an elevated line of sight into the beachside park where the Hanukah celebration was under way.
With an initial impunity, the men begin firing into the crowd of families at a distance of about 50 metres, regularly pausing to reload.
At one point, Sajid Akram descends from the footbridge, walking into the park to fire upon the hundreds of people lying on the ground, sheltering behind trees, or are seeking to flee the park.
In an extraordinary act of bravery, Sydney fruit-store owner Ahmad al Ahmad, creeps up to Sajid, who, unsighted, continues to fire into the screaming crowd.
Ahmad is seen lunging at the gunman’s arms and neck, wrenching the long weapon from his hands and turning it towards him, menacing the now-disoriented terrorist with the firearm, before placing the weapon by a tree. Sajid stumbles backwards, and retreats back to the bridge.
The assault ends, after at least seven minutes of firing, when police bullets fell, first Sajid, and then Naveed.
Police and civilians storm the footbridge.
In the twilight of Sunday evening, Bondi had thronged with the multitudes. The water was gentle and the fading sun still warm.
Without warning, panic is visited upon the beach, the frenzied, chaotic moments as round after round is fired into the terrified crowd.
Footage shot from within the crowd lying in fear on the grass in the park shows people on phones pleading for help, while others can hear their inaccessible phones ringing – loved ones making panicked calls seeking to know they are safe.
Other videos show the terror of thousands fleeing the gunfire: some people run up the beach, some down the sand into the water, falling over each to escape the gunmen.
They fled in panic. On the quiet Monday which followed, the quotidian possessions they had left behind – the shoes and hats, the umbrellas and balls – had been quietly lined up at the edge of the sand, waiting to be reunited with their owners.
Mass shootings are rare in Australia. In the wake of this attack, in a place known to so many across the country and around the world, Australia is wrestling with questions not only of gun control, but also of social harmony, and antisemitism.
Australia has seen a rise in antisemitic attacks, targeting synagogues and Jewish places of business, since October 2023. Some of those attacks have been domestic in origin, but a number have been planned and financed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, in the wake of those attacks, said: “in the fight against antisemitism the way forward is to be more Jewish, act more Jewish, and appear more Jewish”.
Schlanger was the father-of-five killed on Sunday evening.
More has emerged about the alleged attackers too, in particular the younger, Naveed, who came to the attention of intelligence agencies in 2019 because of his “associations” but who was deemed not to be a threat.
Sheikh Adam Ismail, head of Al-Murad Institute in Sydney’s west, said he had previously briefly taught Naveed Akram the Qur’an and Arabic language “as I’ve done with thousands of students”.
Ismail said he was deeply saddened by the senseless, brutal violence wrought by his former pupil.
“I condemn these acts of violence without any hesitation. I’m deeply saddened about what occurred and extend my sincere condolences to the victims, their families, and the Jewish community affected.
“What I find deeply ironic is that the very Qur’an he’s learning to recite clearly states taking one innocent life is like killing all of humanity.
“This makes it clear what unfolded yesterday at Bondi is completely forbidden in Islam. Not everyone who recites the Qu’ran understands it or lives by its teachings.”
