The shock and horror that have rippled out from Bondi Beach across the world are immense. At least 16 people died at a place packed with families. A further 29 individuals suffered serious injuries. For Sunday evening’s shootings to occur in one of the most idyllic and quintessentially Australian of locations, at one of the most joyous times in the Jewish calendar, only deepens the fear and anguish felt throughout the Jewish community, across Australia and more broadly.
Authorities were quick to identify the attack as terrorism, targeting Jews as they gathered to celebrate the beginning of Hanukah on the beach. The two gunmen – one now dead, another critically injured as of Sunday night – fired on the crowds from a bridge. Parents ran with their children in their arms; elderly people struggled to flee. A car containing improvised explosive devices was found nearby and late on Sunday police were still searching for a possible third offender. Without the extraordinary courage of the man who single-handedly wrestled a gun from one attacker at the beach, and the swift response of others, this violence would probably have been still more devastating.
If the location was a shock, the attack itself is all the more disturbing because it is part of a global surge in antisemitic incidents and violence, particularly since the Hamas attack on Israel of 7 October and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza. The devastation has reverberated across the globe. It should not need to be said that nothing can justify the sickening violence unleashed on Sunday.
Australia had already endured arson attacks on synagogues and other properties. (Its security service blamed Iran, working through a complex web of proxies, for at least some of those.) In the UK, it is little more than two months since the attack on the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur left two worshippers dead. In the US too there have been increasing antisemitic attacks, with one counter-terrorism researcher recently warning that they “[come] from all forms of ideologies and extremism”.
Eighty-eight Australians died in bombings in Bali in 2002, and it was an Australian white supremacist who massacred 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019. Yet this may be the most lethal terror attack on its soil. It is the deadliest shooting since the Port Arthur massacre of 1996, in which a single perpetrator killed 35 people including children. That spurred Australia to introduce some of the strictest gun laws in the world. Experts’ concerns that the country is losing control of firearms must be heard.
“In this moment of darkness, we must be each other’s light,” Anthony Albanese told the nation. As the prime minister rightly observed, an attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian. The perpetrators targeted Jews. And in doing so, they wreaked damage on society as a whole. Others will seek to exploit their violence to fuel division in Australia and beyond.
They too must be challenged. Communities around the world have long used light to dispel the shadows in ceremonies and festivals at the darkest time of the year. These rituals are not reducible to a single idea; they have specific histories, resonances and meanings. Yet the common thread is that light can and must persist in the darkness. That the flickers are easily extinguished is more reason for all to protect and nurture them together.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
• This article was amended on 14 December 2025 (UK) / 15 December 2025 (Australia). A previous version incorrectly stated that the Christchurch shooting took place in 2022. It occurred in 2019.
