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BBC– The first day of Hanukkah was a sweltering one in Sydney – a perfect afternoon to spend at Australia’s most iconic beach.
More than 1,000 people were enjoying a festival marking the occasion at a grassy stretch in Bondi: kids careened around in facepaint, crowds snaked between food trucks, and many enjoyed live entertainment as they soaked up the last rays of sunshine.
Then, just before 7pm local time, shots rang out.
From a small footbridge – just metres from a children’s playground – gunmen fired upon the fenced-in crowds. A car full of improvised bombs was parked nearby, though they never went off.
One attendee, who identified himself only as Barry, described watching people around him get shot as hundreds of beach-goers began screaming and running through the park to get away from the attack.
“It was pandemonium and chaos,” he told the BBC.
One video showed a man – dubbed a “genuine hero” by state officials – leaping out from behind a parked car to wrestle a gun from one of the attackers and push him away.
“It was simply an unbelievable scene… in today’s day and age, that families and kids on Bondi could be completely mowed down for being Jewish,” Barry said.
At least 11 people have died and more than two dozen are injured, including a child. One gunman was also killed by police, another is in hospital in a critical condition, and police say they’re investigating whether a third person helped stage the attack.
This is an unfamiliar, and devastating, shock for Australia – the deadliest shooting in this country since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
That attack, which killed 35 people, was a turning point, famously prompting the government to introduce some of the world’s strictest gun control measures.
We’ve only had a handful of mass shootings since then, most of them horrific acts of domestic violence – not public attacks like today.
Swiftly declared a terrorist attack by police, it comes amid a rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent offensive on Gaza.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it an “act of evil antisemitism” and a “vile act of violence and hate”.
But he’s been accused by some – including Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – of failing to address the upward trend of antisemitism here.
“The Australian government, which received countless warning signs, must come to its senses!” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sky News Sunday night that the “worst fears” of the Jewish community had been realised.
“It’s been bubbling under the surface for a long time, and now it’s actually happened.”
In a statement, the Australia Jewish Association’s Robert Gregory said many Jews would tonight be pondering whether they have a future in Australia.
“To be confronted with this horrific act of antisemitic violence during the Jewish festival of light and hope is shattering. In moments like this, we hold each other close,” the Jewish Council of Australia said in a statement.
There’s a lot police can’t – or won’t – say yet. But they have declared this was a terrorist attack.
Who the gunmen are – how many of them even – and their motive is still unclear. They said one of the attackers was known to police, but wasn’t on their radar for anything like this.
Officials wouldn’t answer any questions about those who died either, out of respect for families who are still being notified.
“It’s too early to give that information,” was the most frequent refrain uttered at a press conference late on Sunday night.
But where NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon couldn’t offer answers, he tried instead to offer reassurance. Police are throwing everything at this investigation, he said.
He urged the community to remain calm, and avoid spreading misinformation online – including speculating on the victims and perpetrators of the attack.
“I want to make sure that there is no retribution,” Commissioner Lanyon said.
Local politicians have also asked people not to share graphic footage from the attack on social media.
In the aftermath of the shooting, sirens were ringing through the city and the area surrounding Bondi swarmed with police cars, helicopters circling above.
There we found Fin Green, who was on FaceTime with his family in the UK when he saw the shooting unfolding outside his window. Unsure what was happening, he hid in his wardrobe for an hour and a half, until he felt it was safe to go out.
Danny Clayton, a broadcast journalist who was at the beach and witnessed the events from the Bondi Pavilion, said some people crashed their cars as they attempted to flee.
Many others in the area had similar stories. Restaurant worker William Doliente Petty said he was serving someone when he heard the gunshots. “The whole shop just stood up and we ran into the back exit.”
Australia prides itself on being a merry, safe country and Bondi Beach has long been a symbol of that. But that image has been shattered and residents are in disbelief.
Sunday’s attack also came less than two years after another nearby tragedy. In April last year, a deadly mass stabbing attack took place at nearby Bondi Junction. Shocked, many then uttered the same words we’ve heard over and over today too: “This sort of thing just doesn’t happen here”.
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That stupid guy netanyahu is endangering other Jewish innocent people by his murderous act against Palestinian children and woman and men that he has been slaughtering like flies.
This is reminiscing of the slaughter of the aboriginal people of Australia for the lands.
We must get netanyahu out of government affairs of Israel and the world to curtail these heinous act against humanity.
Kinda a result of Israels propaganda and counting to say all Jews are Zionist and anti Zionist = anti Jewish, Israel have ignored actual antisemitic people and acts and try to go after people who are anti Zionist as a result if everything anti Israel is antisemitic the word no longer hold a meaning and people don’t care about being called that for not supporting Israels actions and it also allow real nazis to rise and be open as it is in many nations like the US with the rise of certain figures in mainstream media leading groypers and also in the US government.
@Eldread Who you will blame the for the massacre is being happening for years in Sudan? Congo? Chad? Somalia? Yemen? ETHIOPIA? And Others Countries in Africa.. Hmm is because Israel and USA isn’t involved you make silence of it? I never see a comment or a few articles in the news of Antigua in support of all of Black people being murder in Africa in the hand of others Black..Ohh but Israel is in the peak..Everyone want to eradicate Jews from the world, but they united stand and fight back to those who want them dead. Then people complain because the response of Jewish to those who want to eradicate them are to powerful..But is a survival matter..Or you become strong and fight, or you will be dead.
If someone want to kill you and try to do it..Wich mommy you want to be seeing crying..Your mommy or the mommy of the one who want to kill you?
Actually on a point of correction. You are wrong on Africa here. On nations 1, 2 4 and 5 either one of the two colonial powers are involved. The corporate media will have you think its black on black, but never show who is behind it. Do you research or better yet, ask an African. Anyway, this is not about Africa and not everyone wants to eradicate them – again conflating the issue. If only Iran would unleash on them, we would be redrawing maps a decade later.
Basically you have it backwards, they are doing the indiscriminate killing in order to genoside the palestinians who had that land. Lookup the UN factual case on them- the same UN that granted them statehood.
If you still want to dwell on Africa, here’s a lil fact you may not know the sneaky Brits (who still neo-colonize you) originally offered them Uganda as a place to colonize.Their first explorers reported back that Africans werent feeling them and them vs a whole continent would be hard to fight so they opted for gaza lands later. Dont sympathize for colonizers, imperialists and geno siders, they are not on the right side of history- unless of course you are one of them Mr Smith?
@smith: yes that’s true in Africa none of the international white media shows Africa killings, they don’t regard us as human, just as you hear Israel call none pure white Palestinian animals, they used the same ideology of their native country Germany under Hitler doctrine of eliminating none whites, because also their global corporations are there looting resources in DRC and other places, can you imagine landing strip in the jungle with Boeing 747 taking off full of diamonds?
So the media down play Africans as hungry people needing to be fed.
@Elread and that is the point…What we are moving our attention too much to Israel and Palestine.. Palestines (Arabs) and Jews don’t sympathize with real genocides being happening in Africa in recent times..Did you see the same UN stats of how many Millions and Millions of Dollars are being funneled to Palestine in the last 3 decades? UN have a payroll of over 17 thousand people in Gaza..Millions of dollars those people receive yearly in diferent programs, from Healthcare, Food, Infrastructure..They don’t work..Hamas literally kidnapped the dominance of the Government of Gaza and they don’t want to give it up because they are sitting in a multimillion dollars power.
Look what happens in Yemen in the last 10 years? That is by far worst than Palestine and nobody say anything against Saudi Arab. People instead love to travel to Emirates, Dubai, Qatar and others..Nobody is hunting Saudi Arabs citizens in the world for what they did in Yemen.
You and others here are buying the same distraction of this conflict between Israel and Palestine.
That is why I’m always not supporting this narrative of the media being too sensational about Poor Palestines when in fact those citizens receive in Aid more money per people than any other citizens in the world.
But just ask yourself a question in wich type of society you want to live. Arabs or Israel. In what type of country you’ll find better opportunities to settle and grow as a Black family. In Arabs countries or Israel.
We need to stop giving too much attention to these people and force media to turn the eyes in the real genocides being happening in Africa.