Days after Hamas attacked Israel in 2023, killing some 1,200 people and sparking the war in Gaza, an inverted red triangle was spray-painted on the front of a Jewish bakery in Sydney, the first of a string of antisemitic incidents in Australia.

Sixteen months and thousands of arson, firebombing, graffiti, and hate-speech incidents later, the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency declared that antisemitism was his number one priority in terms of threat to life.

Sunday’s shooting attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which killed at least 12 people and wounded dozens, brought to reality a fear that many Australian Jews say they have been living with: that they are no longer safe in the country that was supposed to protect them.

“This is the worst fears of the Jewish community,” Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told Sky News. “It’s been bubbling under the surface for a long time, and now it’s actually happened.”

Australia’s Jewish diaspora is small but deeply embedded in the wider community, with about 150,000 people who identify as Jewish in the country of 27 million. About one-third of them are estimated to live in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, including Bondi.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling the Hanukkah shootings a devastating terrorist attack targeting Jewish people, said his government would “dedicate every resource to making sure you are safe and protected.”

Amid constant reports of Jewish parents afraid to take their children to daycare and Jewish schools hiring extra security, the government last year appointed its first special envoy to combat antisemitism.

“Being Jewish, it’s been a very challenging few years,” said Terry, who gave only his first name and was at a nearby Hanukkah event that was put into lockdown.

“Maybe we need to move to Israel one day. The irony is that that’s looking like the only real safe place in the world we can be as Jews.”

Ryvchin’s organisation logged some 1,600 anti-Jewish incidents in the year to September 30, about three times the number in any year before the Hamas attack and Israel’s response, according to a report it published this month.

One of those incidents was antisemitic graffiti on Ryvchin’s former home near Bondi Beach in January, the report said.

Other incidents included a childcare centre firebombed and emblazoned with antisemitic graffiti, also in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and two public hospital nurses who were sacked after being captured on a social media video-chat platform saying they would turn away Israeli patients.

“The inevitable has happened now,” said Rabbi Levi Wolff of Central Sydney Synagogue, speaking in Bondi. As a Jew in Australia, he added, “You’re always looking behind you.”

Reporting by Byron Kaye and Pete McKenzie; Editing by William Mallard

A terrorist attack on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, killed at least 11 and injured dozens, authorities say, marking the deadliest antisemitic attack since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel.

The shooting occurred as roughly 2,000 people gathered to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. Police say the attack deliberately targeted the Jewish community, involved at least two gunmen, and included improvised explosive devices found nearby. One attacker was killed, and another is in critical condition.

“One of the alleged shooters in the deadly attacks at Bondi Beach in Sydney was Naveed Akram, a man from the city’s south-west, according to a senior law enforcement official,” ABC News reported.

Video captured of the attack shows a long shootout between the terrorists and law enforcement. One terrorist was taken down as he fired at the Jewish celebration by an unarmed civilian, who can be seen in footage wrestling the gun away from the attacker.

Witnesses described scenes of chaos, with bodies on the sand, blood everywhere, and wounded victims carried on surfboards due to a lack of stretchers. The event was packed with hundreds of families, with children ending up under fire from the terrorists.

World leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israel’s Chaim Herzog, condemned the “vile” terrorist attack on civilians, condemning antisemitism.

“The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration,” Rubio said. “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.”

“At these very moments, our sisters and brothers in Sydney, Australia, have been attacked by vile terrorists in a very cruel attack on Jews who went to light the first candle of Chanukah on Bondi Beach,” Israeli President Chaim Herzog said. “Our hearts go out to them. The heart of the entire nation of Israel misses a beat at this very moment, as we pray for the recovery of the wounded, we pray for them and we pray for those who lost their lives.”

The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, reacted, “Strongly condemn the ghastly terrorist attack carried out today at Bondi Beach, Australia, targeting people celebrating the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. On behalf of the people of India, I extend my sincere condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. We stand in solidarity with the people of Australia in this hour of grief. India has zero tolerance towards terrorism and supports the fight against all forms and manifestations of terrorism.”

Yet the initial response of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese neither mentioned the Jewish identity of the victims nor the Hanukkah celebration.

The statement from Australia’s Prime Minister, no mention of Jews, no mention of Hanukkah, not a single word on terror or anti-semitism. pic.twitter.com/9zNa6qfb6Y

— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) December 14, 2025

Albanese has been a vocal critic of Israel, and split with the United States at the United Nations to endorse an anti-Israel resolution that called on it to withdraw from “occupied” Palestinian territory.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton slammed the decision, saying Albanese “sold the Jewish community out for ‘green’ votes.”

The Bondi massacre occurred amid a sharp rise in antisemitism across Australia since October 7. Jewish communities have faced antisemitic chants at rallies, synagogues have been firebombed, threats from healthcare workers, intimidation on university campuses, and vandalism of Jewish leaders’ homes. Intelligence reporting has linked some attacks to foreign-backed Islamist networks, yet the government has been slow and cautious in assigning blame.

Among the victims of the shooting was Arsen Ostrovsky, a prominent voice against antisemitism across the globe who recently moved to Australia from Israel.

“I saw blood gushing in front of me,” Ostrovsky said in a local interview after the attack. “I saw people hit, saw people fall to the ground. My only concern was, ‘Where are my kids? Where are my kids? Where’s my wife? Where’s my family?’”

“It was an absolute bloodbath, blood gushing everywhere,” Ostrovsky said. “October seventh, that’s the last time I saw this. I never thought I would see this in Australia.”

“I lived in Israel the last 13 years,” he said. “We came here only two weeks ago to work with a Jewish community, to fight antisemitism, to fight this bloodthirsty, ravaging hatred.”

One of the attackers has already been identified as Naveed Akram, and authorities are reportedly raiding his Sydney home.