Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Sunday expressed shock over Sydney's Bondi beach shooting, linking it to the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Australia over the past two years, according to Reuters.
He suggested that the violent outcome was influenced by repeated anti-Semitic and provocative slogans, such as “Globalise the Intifada", which had been circulating and were realised in the attack.
“The Australian Government, which has received countless warning signs, must come to its senses,” Saar stated.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog stated that Jewish people lighting the first Hanukkah candle on the beach were targeted by “vile terrorists”.
A yearly event called "Chanukah by the Sea," celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, was scheduled to take place at the beach on Sunday afternoon. Authorities have not commented on whether the incident had an antisemitic motive.
Meanwhile, officials mentioned that one of the suspected shooters was killed, while the other remains in critical condition, but no further details about the motive have been released, a report by AFP noted. A total of 12 people were killed, reported Reuters citing Australian Police.
Police stated that their operation was “ongoing” and that a “number of suspicious items located in the vicinity” were being examined by specialist officers.
Dramatic footage, reportedly captured by a member of the public and aired on Australian television, showed someone seemingly tackling and disarming one of the gunmen, then pointing the man's weapon at him.
Authorities said emergency services were called to Campbell Parade around 6:45 pm (local time).
Local news outlets interviewed distressed and bloodied bystanders who had witnessed the incident. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns described the reports and images from the scene as “deeply distressing".
PM Anthony Albanese reacts
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his sympathy for those affected, saying,
“The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing,” and added, “Police and emergency responders are on the ground working to save lives.”
Mass shootings resulting in multiple deaths are extremely rare in Australia. A 1996 massacre in Port Arthur, Tasmania, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, led the government to implement strict gun laws, making it far more difficult for Australians to obtain firearms.
Other notable mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five in 2014 and seven in 2018, in which the perpetrators killed their own families before taking their own lives.
In 2022, two police officers were shot and killed by Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland. The three shooters in that case, conspiracy theorists who hated the police, were also killed by officers after a six-hour siege in the Wieambilla area, along with one of their neighbours.
