Updated December 14, 2025 at 12:30 PM CST
At least 12 people, including one gunman, are dead after a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on Sunday, according to officials. At least 29 people have been hospitalized.
The attack occurred around 6:45 p.m. local time on Sunday, when emergency services were called to the beach after reports of shots fired, according to the New South Wales police.
In addition to the gunman who was killed, a second gunman is in critical condition and two police officers are also injured, NSW police also said. Hundreds of people had gathered at the popular beach for Chanukah by the Sea, an event celebrating the start of Hanukkah, the annual Jewish festival.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday called the shooting a "targeted attack against Jewish Australians" and a "terrorist incident."
"An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian," Albanese said in a statement posted on social media. "There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear. We will eradicate it."
Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement which runs events around the world, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event.
Video footage filmed by onlookers appeared to show two gunmen with long guns firing from a footbridge leading to the beach. One clip broadcast on Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen.
Mass shootings are rare in Australia, largely due to the country's strict gun laws. The country implemented some of the world's toughest gun laws after its worst-ever mass shooting in 1996, when a lone gunman killed 35 people at a café and tourist site in Tasmania's Port Arthur.
The attack is the first deadly mass shooting in Australia since 2022, when six people, including two police officers, were shot in a suspected ambush at a property as officers responded to a missing person's report.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday blamed the Sydney attack on Australia's prime minister, accusing him of doing nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism during the Gaza war.
In remarks delivered in English at a government meeting Sunday, Netanyahu said he wrote to Albanese in August, arguing that Australia's move to recognize a Palestinian state encouraged "Jew hatred." Australia and other large Western countries recognized a State of Palestine in September.
"Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia," Netanyahu said. "You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today."
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said he spoke to Australia's foreign minister, expressing Israel's "pain and sorrow" over the attack, and arguing there has been a "surge in antisemitism in Australia" since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel Oct. 7, 2023.
There have been multiple anti-semitic attacks in Australia in recent years, including arson. In August, Albanese blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran.
UN Chief Antonio Guterres called the shooting "a heinous deadly attack on Jewish families." Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the country has repeatedly called on Australia to take action against an "enormous wave of antisemitism."
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