Father and son gunmen kill at least 15 people in attack on Hanukkah
event at Sydney's Bondi Beach
[December 15, 2025]
By KRISTEN GELINEAU, CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-McLAY and ROD
McGUIRK
SYDNEY (AP) — Two gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah celebration on
Sydney's Bondi beach, killing 15 people, including a child, officials
said Monday, in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of
antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation. The
shooters were father and son, authorities said.
The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular beaches followed a wave
of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year,
although the authorities didn’t suggest those and the shooting Sunday
were connected. It was the deadliest shooting in almost three decades in
a country with strict gun control laws.
One gunman, a 50-year-old man, was fatally shot by police. The other
shooter, his 24-year-old son, was wounded and was being treated at a
hospital, said Mal Lanyon, New South Wales police commissioner.
Police said one gunman was known to security services, but Lanyon said
authorities had no indication of a planned attack.
Those killed were aged between 10- and 87-years-old, New South Wales
Premier Chris Minns told reporters. At least 42 others were being
treated at hospitals on Monday morning, several of them in a critical
condition.
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism,
an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location,
Bondi Beach, that is associated with joy, associated with families
gathering, associated with celebrations,” Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese said Monday.
“It is forever tarnished by what has occurred.”
The shooting targeted a Jewish celebration
The violence erupted at the end of a summer day when thousands had
flocked to Bondi Beach, an icon of Australia's cultural life. They
included hundreds gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating
the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.
The festivities included face painting and a petting zoo. Then mayhem
erupted.
Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach worldwide and
sponsors events during major Jewish holidays, identified one of the dead
as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and an
organizer of the event.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but
gave no further details. French President Emmanuel Macron announced a
French citizen, identified as Dan Elkayam, was among those killed.
None of the victims have been publicly named by Australian authorities.
The gunmen haven't been officially named either.
But stories of the victims began to emerge in local news outlets on
Monday. Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside St Vincent's Hospital
that her husband, Alexander Kleytman was among the dead, according to
The Australian newspaper.
The couple were both Holocaust survivors.
Police said emergency services were called at about 6:45 p.m.,
responding to reports of shots being fired. Video by onlookers showed
people in bathing suits running from the water as shots rang out.
Separate footage showed two men in black shirts firing with long guns
from a footbridge leading to the beach. One dramatic clip broadcast on
Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one
gunman, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on
the ground.
Minns called the man, identified by relatives to Australian media as
fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, a “genuine hero.”
Witnesses fled and hid as shots rang out
Arsen Ostrovsky, a lawyer attending the Hanukkah ceremony with his wife
and daughters, was grazed in the head by a bullet. Ostrovsky said he
moved from Israel to Australia two weeks ago to work for a Jewish
advocacy group.
“What I saw today was pure evil, just an absolute bloodbath. Bodies
strewn everywhere,” he told The Associated Press in an email from the
hospital. "I never thought would be possible here in Australia."
Lachlan Moran, 32, from Melbourne, told the AP he was waiting for his
family when he heard shots.
"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."
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Emergency workers transport a person on a stretcher after a reported
shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP
Photo/Mark Baker)
Antisemitic attacks have roiled Australia
Albanese vowed the violence would be met with “a moment of national
unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow
Australians of Jewish faith.” Some of his political opponents and
Israel's government accused him of not having done enough to prevent
such a horror.
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.
Last year, the country was rocked by 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.
Israel urged Australia's government to address crimes targeting
Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he warned Australia’s
leaders months ago 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.
Police will investigate what happened
Authorities were not looking for anyone else in connection with the
massacre, said Lanyon. Police pledged a “thorough” investigation, he
added.
Further inquiries are likely to be announced.
Two improvised explosive devices were found at the scene. Bomb
disposal experts rendered them safe.
Lanyon described them as “rudimentary” devices that would have been
detonated by a wick rather than a phone or electronically.
Shooting deaths in Australia are rare
Minns said there would “almost certainly” be gun law changes after
the massacre. The 50-year-old gunman who was shot dead was found to
have six firearms when law enforcement raided the property where
he'd been staying, police said.
Questions about how he was able to acquire them gathered pace on
Monday, in part because 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, making it much more difficult 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.
World leaders express shock and grief
After the massacre, messages flooded in from leaders around the
world.
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 he was
horrified, and his “heart is with the Jewish community worldwide.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X: “The United
States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting
a Jewish celebration. Antisemitism has no place in this world.”
___
McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Graham-McLay from
Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in
Tel Aviv, Israel, and Mustakim Hasnath in London contributed to this
report.
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