Gunmen Kill 15 at Hanukkah Celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach in Attack Police Declare Terrorism
Two gunmen opened fire on a crowd celebrating the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on the evening of December 14, 2025, killing 15 people and sending more than 40 others to hospitals, including two police officers. The New South Wales Police Force declared the shooting a terrorist incident that night.
The NSW Police Force said emergency services were called to Bondi Beach at about 6:40 p.m. following reports of a public place shooting and found two men firing long-arm firearms into a crowd at Archer Park. As officers exchanged fire with the men, a 50-year-old gunman suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene, and a 24-year-old man was wounded and arrested. Police later confirmed the two were father and son, and that those killed were aged between 10 and 87. Police also said a vehicle linked to the deceased gunman was found to contain several improvised explosive devices.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon formally declared the incident a terrorist attack that night and said the attack was designed to target Sydney's Jewish community. About 1,000 people had gathered at the beach for an event called Chanukah by the Sea on the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack as an act of pure evil and of antisemitism aimed at the Jewish community. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns praised Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old fruit shop owner who wrestled a rifle from one of the gunmen at the scene, as a genuine hero. The attack was Australia's deadliest mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which 35 people were killed.
Source: New South Wales Police Force
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于澳大利亚新南威尔士州悉尼市的 Bondi 海滩（资料照片，2019年摄）。Dietmar Rabich 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Bondi Beach in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (file photo, 2019). By Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
