On 14 December 2025, an antisemitic and Islamic State (IS) –inspired terrorist attack occurred at the Archer Park area of Bondi Beach in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, during a celebration of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah attended by around 1,000 people. Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed Akram, allegedly shot dead 15 people, including 11 men, 3 women, and a 10-year-old girl. Sajid (an Indian national and Australian permanent resident) was shot dead by police; his son Naveed (an Australian-born citizen) was treated for wounds at a local hospital and survived. Islamic State later claimed credit for the attack.
Naveed is now on remand in Goulburn Correctional Centre awaiting trial for 15 murders and 63 other offences. Over the course of the attack, five civilians confronted and attempted to stop the gunmen. Three were killed and one suffered gunshot wounds. Surf lifesavers and other first responders rushed to the scene to provide first aid during the active shooting. Members of the New South Wales Police Force shot the two alleged gunmen, killing Sajid and critically injuring Naveed, who was detained. Forty people, including two police officers, were injured and taken to various hospitals in Sydney.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said the shooting was "deliberately targeted at the Jewish community on the first day of Chanukah". The ongoing investigation by federal and New South Wales police forces is named "Operation Arques". A federal royal commission will examine the circumstances surrounding the attack.
The Bondi shooting is the first fatal attack on Jews in Australia, the worst terrorist attack in Australia, and the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in which 35 people were killed. Mass casualty attacks are uncommon in Australia; the country enacted strict gun laws in response to the Port Arthur massacre. Following the Bondi Beach shooting, the National Cabinet unanimously agreed to further restrict gun laws and introduce a gun buyback program. The attack led to changes to federal hate speech laws and was marked by a national day of reflection and a national day of mourning. In New South Wales, the attack led to changes to terrorism and protest laws.
Religious and racial intolerance in Australia
The December 2025 attack in Bondi was the first deadly attack targeting Jews in Australia. Prior to this incident, the Australian Jewish community experienced an increase in antisemitic attacks on Jewish individuals and institutions since the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023. The shooting targeted an annual community Hanukkah celebration organised by Chabad named "Chanukah by the Sea". The event was held at Archer Park just east of the Bondi Pavilion, with around 1,000 people in attendance.
In the 2010s, around 500 Australians who supported the self-declared Islamic State (IS) attempted or succeeded in migrating to its territory in Iraq and Syria. Many of those who migrated were killed in combat, but dozens of survivors remain in camps guarded by Kurdish forces in Rojava in Syria.
Beginning in 2014, IS directed its supporters around the world to commit "lone wolf" attacks.
Since then, there have been other Islamic State inspired lone wolf attacks, often on Jewish or Christian festivals.
However, Islamic State has not historically focused on the Palestine conflict with Israel.
Violence and terrorism in Australia
Mass casualty terrorism is rare in Australia. The Bondi Beach shooting is the worst terrorist attack committed in Australia. According to the Combating Terrorism Center (CTC), prior to the Bondi Beach shooting, there had been eleven successful jihadi attacks in Australia since the start of the 21st century, resulting in a total of seven fatalities excluding perpetrators and each of which resulted in no more than two people being killed. In addition, the CTC found 22 foiled jihadi plots during the same time period. The CTC attributed this to "a combination of good fortune, gun control measures, and effective counterterrorism (including the extensive use of travel restrictions to prevent local jihadis from gaining training experience abroad)".
In August 2024, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) raised Australia's national terrorism threat level from "possible" to "probable", citing the risk of community tensions and political violence related to the Gaza war as one of the reasons for doing so.
About a month before the attack, Mossad warned Australian intelligence about possible attacks from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The Australian Financial Review said Mossad was helping ASIO.
The Bondi Beach shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. Australia's strict gun laws – including restrictions on automatic, semi-automatic, and pump-action rifles, as well as shotguns – were introduced after 35 people were killed in that shooting. Despite this, the number of firearms in Australia, and the number of people licensed to own them, has increased, and hit "a record high" before the shootings. In New South Wales, where the Bondi Beach shooting took place, there were 260,000 gun licences in 2025, up from 181,000 in 2001.
Police allege that Sajid and Naveed Akram, a father and son, threw three pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb into the crowd from a footbridge arching over the carpark to the north of the Bondi Pavilion, all of which failed to detonate. After throwing the bombs, they began shooting into the crowd. Videos of the attack showed two men dressed in black tops firing on the crowd from the footbridge, reportedly with a straight-pull bolt-action rifle and a shotgun. A nearly continuous 11-minute video, recorded by a bystander and beginning shortly after the gunmen opened fire, filmed the attackers from the street side of the footbridge approximately 50 metres (160 ft) away. The video includes the final moments of the shooting, including the first police officer stepping onto the footbridge to apprehend the gunmen, as well as treatment of the wounded.
During the start of the attack, Boris and Sofia Gurman, a Russian-Jewish Australian couple, noticed an Islamic State flag displayed on a parked vehicle. One gunman was already firing his weapon on the footbridge, while another exited the vehicle, at which point the Gurmans struggled with him, seizing his gun. The second gunman then retrieved another rifle, and one or both of the attackers shot them dead.