At least 16 people were shot and killed in an attack targeting a Jewish gathering on Sunday, the first day of Hanukkah, on Australia's Bondi Beach, according to Australian government officials and police. Another 40 people were hospitalized with injuries, including two officers and a child.

One of two gunmen identified in the shooting was also dead, and the second was hospitalized "in serious condition," police said. The deceased gunman was identified as Naveed Akram, 24, a Pakistani national based in Sydney, according to a U.S. intelligence briefing and a driver's license provided by Australian police. 

The surviving gunman was in custody and has not been named. Officers were investigating whether a "third offender" was also involved, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon at a news conference Sunday. New South Wales is the Australian state where Bondi Beach is located, in a suburb of Sydney.

Police had said they expected the death toll to climb, and it did increase overnight Sunday, as did the number of injured.
Officials have not identified the victims of the attack, although the international organization Chabad, which represents a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, said that one of its rabbis, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was among the dead, the Associated Press reported. Schlanger had been a key organizer of the Hanukkah celebration where the shooting took place.

Called Hanukkah by the Sea, the event was held to mark the beginning of the Jewish holiday observed from sundown on Sunday until Monday, Dec. 22. More than 1,000 were at the beach when gunfire broke out, said Lanyon. He called the attack a "terrorist incident" and said the perpetrators used "long arms," referring to long guns such as shotguns or rifles, to carry it out. 

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also characterized the attack as targeted, with Minns saying it "was designed to target Sydney's Jewish community." The prime minister said it was "a targeted attack on Jewish Australians."

"This afternoon, there has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi and the Hanukkah by the Sea celebration," said Albanese at a news conference he convened in the wake of the shooting. "This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah — which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith — an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism, that has struck the heart of our nation."

Lanyon said police believed there were several improvised explosive devices inside a vehicle at Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach, which they discovered shortly after the shooting occurred. A rescue bomb disposal crew was at the scene.

International leaders have publicly condemned the attack.

"The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack in Australia targeting a Jewish celebration," wrote U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a social media post. "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's statement echoed others from officials in Israel, New Zealand, India, the United Kingdom and a number of European countries who similarly spoke out to denounce antisemitism and share their condolences after the shooting.

King Charles also addressed the shooting in a statement, in which the monarch said he and Queen Camilla were "appalled and saddened by the most dreadful antisemitic terrorist attack on Jewish people" attending the Bondi Beach Hanukkah event. 

"In times of hurt, Australians always rally together in unity and resolve," he said in the statement, adding that Australia's "spirit of community and love ... will always triumph over the darkness of such evil."

Gunman disarmed by bystander, video shows

Images and video footage have emerged from the scene of the attack, showing the injured being wheeled away on stretchers by first responders.

"The scenes in Bondi are shocking and distressing," said Albanese in a statement. "My thoughts are with every person affected."

One video appeared to show someone wrestling with one of the suspected gunmen and taking his weapon from him, according to Minns, who paid tribute to that individual in some of his comments Sunday.

The video was recorded by a bystander along Campbell Parade, a main street that runs parallel to Bondi Beach. In it, a man jumped up from a crouched position behind a parked car and tackled the suspect, who had just fired his weapon toward something out of view. 

Following a short struggle, the man disarmed the suspect, pushed him to the ground and turned the weapon on him, at which point the suspect stood up and walked in the opposite direction. The man then lowered the weapon and raised his free hand in the air. Off to the side, one person appeared to be lying unresponsive on the sidewalk beside a different vehicle.

In additional footage, which was also filmed by bystanders, crowds could be seen fleeing Bondi Beach as shots rang out in the background.

Minns called the man, named by relatives to Australian media as fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, a "genuine hero."

Rare shooting

Mass shootings in Australia are rare. But researchers have recorded dramatic upticks in antisemitic incidents in the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas terrorists on Israel triggered the war in Gaza, along with spikes in hate incidents against Muslim groups. 

In response, the Australian government appointed special envoys last year to address antisemitism and Islamophobia in its communities. However, attacks have continued to happen since then. In July, an arsonist set fire to the door of a synagogue in Melbourne, another major Australian city, seven months after a different synagogue in the same city was burned by criminals in a blaze that injured one worshipper.