The shooters were 2 Muslim men (father 50 yoa and son 24 yoa). 16 shot dead (including a 10 yoa girl and an 87 yoa holocaust survivor from Ukraine - the 50 yoa Islamic terrorist shooter was shot dead by police) and 40 wounded (including the 24 yoa Islamic terrorist shooter who was wounded by police).
A 43 yoa Muslim man, who is a local small business owner, father of 2 daughters aged 5 and 6 and who had immigrated from Syria and became naturalized, successfully disarmed the 50 yoa shooter while unarmed himself by sneaking up behind him and wrestling the firearm away from him. He did not shoot the terrorist with his own firearm. The terrorist backed away then went and retrieved another firearm to continue shooting. The Muslim “Bondi Beach hero” was wounded by 2 shots from 1 of the terrorists.
Witnesses said the attack lasted from 10-20 minutes and that it was at least 10 minutes into the attack before 4 local police returned fire with their handguns. The nearest police station was 0.25 mile away (~ 3 city blocks) from the terrorist shooters’ location. The father used a rifle or shotgun. The son used a straight-pull single-action rifle (which has a faster rate-of-fire than a bolt-action rifle). ~82 rounds were fired into the gathering of Jewish celebrants by the 2 terrorist shooters. 20 additional rounds were fired by police armed with handguns at the 2 terrorists. During the attack, the terrorists threw 4 IEDs (3 pipe bombs + 1 tennis ball bomb) into the crowd at Archer Park. None exploded. They were recovered afterwards by police and determined to still be viable. The police later found and removed 2 suspected IEDs from a car belonging to 1 of the shooters. 2 ISIS flags were also recovered from the car. The father had 6 firearms licensed to him, which were found at the scene and used in the attack.
The father was eligible for a firearms license for recreational hunting and was a member of a gun club. The son had been investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency for 6 months starting in OCT 2019. He was examined because of his connections with 2 people who were later jailed. The son was an Australian-born citizen, while the father arrived in 1998 from India on a student visa and received a spouse visa in 2001.
Many consider this Islamic terrorist attack to be the continuation of the “global intifada/ Muslim rebellion-uprising” (which really started in 624 A.D. with the Battle of Badr, 70 miles SW of Medina) especially against the Western Civilization nations in Europe and North America since 2015 when the EU enabled Muslim refugees to migrate (hijrah) into Europe in massive waves. The jihad trail over the last 25 years preceding the global intifada includes (1) the 2nd Intifada (2000-2005), (2) the 2nd Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenian) War (2000), (3) 9/11 (2001), (4) the Afghanistan War (2001-2021), (5) Gulf War II (2003-2011), (6) the Arab Spring (2010-2012), (7) the Syrian Civil War (2011-2024), and (8) the 7 OCT 2023 Gaza War (when pro-Palestinian protesters in the West rallied to the battle cry, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”).
The AUS PM, Anthony Albanese (Labor Party – progressive/ socialist), 2 years earlier while serving as an MP, announced his support for a 2-state solution, i.e., creation of a Palestinian state from the West Bank and Gaza territories of Israel. AUS has had strict firearms regulations and little criminal activity involving firearms for 29 years since the Port Arthur Massacre in Tasmania and the subsequent passage of the National Firearm Agreement. Albanese immediately called for even tougher gun laws after the Bondi Beach mass shooting saying that leaders would discuss limits on the number of guns that can be licensed and a review of licenses over time. On the day following the mass shooting, the National Cabinet unanimously agreed to strengthen gun laws. Proposals brought forward during the meeting included (1) restricting firearm ownership to Australian citizens only, (2) accelerating the launch of a national firearms register already planned, (3) limiting the number of firearms a single person can own (In nearly all Australian states and territories, there is currently no limit on the number of guns an individual can own.), and (4) further restricting the types of weapons that are legal (straight-pull single-action rifle? – the type used by the 24 yoa terrorist). Also being considered is (5) another mandatory gun buy-back program similar to the 1 enacted after the Port Arthur Massacre which culminated in the confiscated firearms being destroyed. The government would pay owners to surrender surplus, newly banned, and illegal firearms.
On the day after the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre, Dionne Taylor, the communications manager of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council and a senior figure in the Bondi Beach community, said in an interview: "We have been completely let down by our government. We warned them that this snowball effect was going to happen, and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed. …It started with hate speech. Then graffiti. Then public demonstrations. Then firebombing synagogues, preschools, people’s homes, people’s cars. And now murder. … We receive these 1-line messages that there’s ‘no place for antisemitism in Australia’. But they’re empty promises. There’s been no action. There’s been a number of situations that have led to the complete erosion of social cohesion here in Australia, a relaxed immigration policy, letting in too many refugees from the wrong places, a rise of radical Islamism and a basically slick government that really hasn’t assisted or supported the Jewish community and other communities. So this attack, while it was a targeted attack on the Jewish community, is actually a targeted attack across the whole of Australia. …I would hope that this is a big wake-up call for our current government. This is an attack on the whole of Australia. So they’ve lost 15 of their citizens in 1 day and they’re powerless to stop it. So, if they can’t make changes and improvements to not only protect the Jewish community, but to protect the broader Australian community from terrorism, then they need to do that. And I believe they know they need to do it. I just don’t think they know how."
The Bondi Beach hero who disarmed 1 of the terrorists during the attack, received a check valued at US$1.65M raised on-line through GoFundMe from 43,000 donations in support of his bravery. U.S. billionaire Bill Ackman, a Jewish investment banker, donated US$999,999. Despite his heroism, he faced backlash from some in the world-wide Muslim community for saving Jewish lives. I had not ever heard of a single incident before this where a Muslim defended innocent non-Muslims from another Muslim’s violent attack.
During the week after the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre, the premier of NSW, Chris Minns (Labor Party), declared that there would be legal actions imposed to curtail hate/ antisemitic speech in order to preserve Australia’s multi-cultural society. On the final (8th) day of Hanukkah, a vigil was held at Bondi Beach in memory of the victims. PM Albanese attended, but did not address those in attendance. He was hectored/ jeered by the crowd for failing to curb a surge of antisemitism in AUS since the start of the 7 OCT 2023 Gaza War. The next day, PM Albanese issued an apology to the Jewish community for what they’d been through.
Later reports indicated that the Bondi Beach hero might have his wounded arm amputated. The younger surviving terrorist faces 1 terror charge and 15 counts of murder, along with 40 of attempted murder. Court documents, which contain redactions, includes images from a video of the 2 Islamic terrorists depicting the pair holding rifles and moving in a way that suggests an element of tactical training. The pair are also alleged to have recorded videos in which they shared views suggesting they adhered to “religiously motivated violent extremism ideology.” They both wore black shirts and the son also wore black pants on the day of the mass shooting. Black is a prominent color historically used by jihadists in their flags which typically bear the words of the shahada (“the testimony”: Allah is Supreme! I witness that there is no god but Allah!).
On 12/22/2025, The Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 passed the NSW Legislative Assembly, the lower house, on Monday and was expected to also get approval from the upper house. These are the most significant changes to gun ownership under the proposed law: (1) limit most individuals to owning 4 firearms, and up to 10 for farmers and sport shooters, (2) reduce magazine capacity for high-powered weapons to 5 or 10 rounds, depending on the weapon, (3) reclassify straight-pull/pump-action and button/lever release firearms by limiting access primarily to farmers, (4) completely ban firearms that use belt-fed magazines, (5) cut gun license terms from 5 years to 2 years to ensure more frequent background checks, and (6) limit gun licenses to Australian citizens.
Officials in Sydney in the wake of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre, stifled the Christmas season in a range of ways: (1) they’ve cancelled a New Year’s festival that was scheduled to take place at Bondi Beach, (2) scaled back other Christmas observances, (3) replaced colored Christmas lights at key Sydney locations with faith-neutral white lights, (4) and quashed a traditional “Carols in the City” program. These acts of civic cowardice were spun by authorities as motivated by compassion for Jews; but no one in the Jewish community asked for any of this. In fact, these actions were gestures of appeasement toward the Muslim community, and they all sent the same message: Islamic terrorism works.
