Father, son gunmen kill 15 at Jewish festival in Australia

AFP/APP

Sydney: A father-and-son team toting long-barrelled guns shot and killed 15 people including a 10-year-old girl at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, authorities said Monday, labelling it an antisemitic terrorist attack on a Jewish festival.

The shooting at Australia‘s most famous surf beach on a blue-skied Sunday sent waves of panic through terrified crowds at a tourist hotspot that encapsulates the country’s love of the sea.

The youngest victim was a 10-year-old girl who died in a children’s hospital, police said. The oldest was 87.

Another 42 people were hospitalised, including two police officers.

The morning after the killing, a grassy hill overlooking Bondi Beach was still strewn with discarded items from people fleeing, including a camping table and blankets, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

People gathered other belongings including flip flops, sneakers, and thermos flasks and lined them up in the sand for collection.

The gunmen targeted an annual celebration that drew more than 1,000 people to the beach to mark the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

The killings sparked global condemnation.

Australia is mourning the dead by flying flags at half-mast Monday, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who laid flowers at the entrance to Bondi Pavilion on the beach.

US ‘strongly condemns’ deadly attack on Jewish festival

The United States “strongly condemns the terrorist attack” that left over a dozen people dead at a Hanukkah event in Sydney, Australia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.

 “Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia,” Rubio said in a post on X.

The State Department later said the Rubio held a call with Australian counterpart Penny Wong “to discuss the antisemitic terrorist attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.”

 “We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and with the Australian people as we pray for the victims and their families,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a readout of the call.

US President Donald Trump also briefly mentioned the shooting during remarks at a White House Christmas event, calling it a “terrible attack… an antisemitic attack, obviously.”