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PinnedAustralian police said on Monday that they expected to bring criminal charges against the surviving gunman in a deadly shooting spree that targeted a Jewish holiday celebration in Sydney.The authorities said they have concluded that the attack on Sunday at Bondi Beach, which they said was carried out by a father and son, was an act of terrorism. But they declined to provide additional details, including the suspects’ ideology or exact motive.At least 38 people remained hospitalized following the mass shooting. Hundreds of people had gathered at the beach, a famed half-mile crescent of sand, for a Hanukkah event.Children played as music and bubbles filled the air until the attackers emerged from a silver hatchback near a pedestrian bridge and opened fire. Gunshots ripped through the celebration.Danny Ridley, a photographer who was documenting the gathering, said one attacker fired at him as he was hiding behind a parking meter, leaving him with a light gash on his left rib. “It was just carnage,” he said.Investigators did not release the names of the suspects, but described them as a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son. The older man died after being shot by officers. The younger man sustained critical injuries, the police said on Monday afternoon.Officials said on Monday that the father was an immigrant who came to Australia in 1998 on a student visa and stayed in the country for decades on different kinds of visas. It was unclear what country he was from.The son is an Australian-born citizen who first came to the attention of the police in 2019 “on the basis of being associated with others,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Monday. Neither of them were known to have any history of previous criminal offenses, according to the police.Officials said that the 50-year-old suspect had a recreational hunting license as a member of a gun club that allowed him to possess a long arm weapon, Commissioner Lanyon said at a news conference on Monday.The police were not searching for any other attackers, Commissioner Lanyon said. Two improvised explosive devices were found at the scene and disabled, investigators said.Here’s what else to know:Bystander intervened: Video verified by The New York Times shows a bystander sneaking up on one of the attackers from between two cars and tackling him from behind before wrestling a long gun from his hands. Australian officials named him as Ahmed el Ahmed. Chris Minns, the premier of the state of New South Wales, called him “a genuine hero.” Mr. Minns said he had “no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery.”The victims: Investigators have not released the names of the victims, but details have begun to emerge. Chabad, the Jewish group that organized the event, identified three of the victims, including a long-serving rabbi of the Bondi community. The Israeli foreign ministry said that at least one Israeli national was known to have been killed and another injured. And President Emmanuel Macron of France said one French citizen was among those killed.A rare attack: Mass shootings are a rarity in Australia, which enacted strict gun laws after an attack that killed 35 people in 1996. The older suspect had licenses for six guns, according to investigators, and a total of six were recovered from the scene and two searched properties.President Peter Pellegrini of Slovakia said a Slovak woman named Marika was among those killed in the attack. “It is terrifying to see how far sick, faceless hatred toward strangers can go — hatred fueled simply by differences in faith, skin color, origin, or orientation,” he wrote on social media on Monday.Already yesterday, I unequivocally condemned the brutal, deadly attack on innocent people during the Hanukkah celebrations at Australia’s Bondi Beach and expressed my deep solidarity with a nation plunged into grief and shock. Today, that grief has reached Slovakia as well —…— Peter Pellegrini (@PellegriniP_) December 15, 2025 Chris Minns, the premier of the state of New South Wales, posted a picture on social media with the bystander who tackled a gunman, whom authorities have identified as Ahmed el Ahmed. Ahmed is a real-life hero. Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk.It was an honour to spend time with him just now and to pass on the thanks of people across NSW. pic.twitter.com/3xNBW8vxvZ— Chris Minns (@ChrisMinnsMP) December 15, 2025 “Ahmed is a real-life hero,” Mr. Minns said, adding that they had spent time together in hospital where Mr. el Ahmed was receiving treatment. “Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk.”Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, just left St. George Hospital, where some of the victims are, including Ahmed el Ahmed, the bystander who disarmed one of the gunmen. He did not answer questions about who he had been visiting. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese named Ahmed el Ahmed as the bystander who took a gun off one of the one of the two gunmen. He did so “at great risk to himself and suffered serious injury as a result,” Mr. Albanese said at a news conference, adding that Mr. el Ahmed was undergoing operations in a hospital on Monday.Some Australian Jews are accusing the government of failing to heed warnings.ImageYvonne Haber, left, with other mourners at the site of the shooting in Sydney on Monday.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesAmong many of the members of the Jewish community who gathered near the site of the shooting on Monday, there was anger over what they said had been the failure of the federal government to do enough to address concerns about rising antisemitism in Australia.“We feel very let down by the Australian government,” said Ahron Eisman, 37, who said his next door neighbor was among the killed. “We’ve been saying it’s only a matter of time.”His brother, Chaimy, said the government had been lackluster in responding to the attacks on Jewish institutions and businesses, including arson and graffiti, and the pitched rhetoric in protests against Israel’s war in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks against Israel. “We don’t feel safe here,” he said.Pearl, a woman who said she was at the Hanukkah event but did not want to give her last name, said she was shaken that a joyous, happy festival that was a stalwart of the Jewish community of Bondi had been targeted. “We were so targeted in that little space, we were like sitting ducks,” she said.Yvonne Haber, a three-decade resident of Bondi, said the beach had been at the core of Sydney’s Jewish community since the first refugees arrived after World War II. To have it targeted in the shooting was devastating, she said.“We’ve been walking around on tenterhooks, as Jews,” said Ms. Haber, 62. “This is our worst nightmare.”Jillian Segal, who was appointed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year as Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism in response to the spate of attacks, said in a statement that the mass shooting was the culmination of a “clear pattern” that had led up to this point.“What once seemed distant or uncomfortable can no longer be ignored,” she said.Damien CaveDamien opened a new Australia bureau for The Times in 2017.‘There’s still hope’: This is how the Bondi community rushed to help.ImageA family embraces at a flower memorial by a lifeguard tower on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Monday.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesScrolling through the videos and photos from the shooting in Bondi Beach, not far from where I lived in Sydney, Australia, until about a year ago, I found myself scanning in fear for faces that I recognized.I already knew that friends and acquaintances were there, from the WhatsApp groups that I’m still a part of, and, eventually, I saw and heard from a few of them. An hour after the attack, many were still at the beach, alarmed and shocked, but also surrounded by sirens.The shooting happened within a stone’s throw of the Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club — a beachfront clubhouse built in 1934 that hums every weekend with volunteer lifeguards wearing uniforms of bright yellow and red. When the shooting started, one of the members with military experience was the first to run out, drawing in a number of terrified children.A friend who was there told me that within seconds of the gunfire ending, a crew of “clubbies” surged to the scene. In videos of the aftermath, I could see the familiar equipment and yellow boards that I had trained with when I became a volunteer in Bronte, a nearby beach.“We went out with a couple of first-aid kits at first, and it clearly wasn’t enough,” said Matias Bengolea, 41, a lifesaver who had just finished his afternoon patrol when he heard the pop of gunfire. “I ran back and was getting everything — oxygen and defibrillators and boards to carry people, because they didn’t have enough stretchers.”“It was a bit crazy,” he added. “There were people dressed as Christmas elves because we were having a Christmas party — and they were doing CPR.”That communal scramble to help, deeply ingrained in Australian culture, is the quieter story of the Sunday shooting that many now hope will linger beyond the flowers lining sidewalks or the investigation of the two alleged attackers. Along with the 15 people killed, dozens were wounded, and on a golden beach known for sunrise swims, those bloodied by terror found a community of local and global responders that pulled together in unforeseen ways.First, there was a man — identified by senior Australian officials as Ahmed el Ahmed — who hid behind a car then rushed at one of the shooters as the man approached a crowd gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. By grabbing the gun away from the shooter, he saved lives. A video of his heroism reached my chat groups within minutes of it happening.An image from Instagram followed later, spreading widely among locals by Monday morning. It showed Jackson Doolan, one of the full-time professional lifeguards who work at the three main beaches in eastern Sydney, running barefoot with a heavy medical bag from Tamarama Beach a mile away from Bondi. Jacko, as he is known, was about halfway there when the photo was taken, in mid-sprint, shortly after the shooting started.It was shared by another lifeguard who had helped treat victims of a stabbing at a mall in Bondi last year, grabbing clothes from a rack to make a tourniquet.Those of us who had seen him in the surf were not surprised. Few gathering places anywhere in the world are as likely as Sydney’s beaches to have scores of the fit and first-aid-trained, nearby and eager to help.Bondi Beach, while famous for tourists, is more often enjoyed by sun-scorched locals who are there nearly every day, and that crowd was heavily represented in Sunday’s aftermath. I immediately recognized Shannon Hardaker, a lifelong Bondi resident and part-time dog walker who taught my family to surf, and whom I rarely saw facing away from the ocean during my nearly eight years in Sydney.“Heaviest stuff I’ve ever seen,” he said in a video posted to Instagram to let loved ones know he was safe. “I’m shaking.”Photos in local media showed him just before that, helping the police with a distressed man near the bridge where the shooters had been firing from.Through a friend, I also found an 18-year-old volunteer lifeguard who had been walking close by when the gunmen reached the high ground of a footbridge and started firing. He said he had watched the police shoot at them (killing one, arresting the other). Then he rushed to the aid of a couple who were among the first people shot. They were both dead.He went on to help a half-dozen others during what first responders described as a period of frantic triage, mixing civilians, lifeguards, the police and security guards who had been hired to protect the gathering where children could get free doughnuts and face painting.Shirtless or in uniform, those who had gathered around the wounded performed CPR. They tagged the most severely injured with red markers to ensure they were treated first. They lifted young and old on boards usually used to pull people from the waves. Many were covered in blood.Witnesses and the authorities had made clear by that point that the gunmen were targeting the Jewish community at a holiday event with hundreds of people. The collaborative emergency response — featuring immigrants from many countries working alongside deeply entrenched locals — was, for many who know Bondi, a healthier focal point for those trying to draw larger lessons from the tragedy.Mr. Bengolea, a carpenter who moved to Sydney from Argentina in 2019, didn’t quite know what to say when I asked him to explain what Sunday revealed about the culture of the area, what people outside surf clubs or Bondi might not understand.“I wouldn’t know how to describe it,” he said. The call went quiet, his voice broke. I could tell he was crying. I was, too.“There’s still hope,” he said, taking a deep breath. “I think that’s the point. People rushed to help.”Jin Yu Young The 24-year-old suspect is an Australian-born citizen, said Minister Burke.Jin Yu Young The 50-year-old suspect arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa, the home affairs minister said. In 2001, he transferred that to a partner visa and after trips overseas, has been on resident return visas three times.The younger suspect first came to the attention of Australian officials in October 2019, “on the basis of being associated with others, and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Australia’s prime minister said at a news conference on Monday.Jin Yu Young The prime minister said that civilian who grappled with a gunman, disarming him, was undergoing operations today to treat his injuries.Jin Yu Young Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would be convening the national cabinet today to ensure there is “greater uniformity” in issues surrounding gun laws.The prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, said at a news conference on Monday afternoon that it was increasing security funding for Jewish community groups across the nation.The prime minister said his government was also working on financial support for the funerals of the victims, as well as visas for family members who needed to come to Australia to mourn.Emergency responders at the shooting described a harrowing scene.ImageItems left behind at the scene near Bondi Beach on Monday.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesTwo emergency responders who were at the scene in the immediate aftermath of Sunday evening’s mass shooting in Sydney, Australia, described a harrowing scene of anguish and chaos, brightened only by members of the community rushing over to help.Kaitlin Davidson, a 28-year-old nurse, said she saw the shooting unfolding at Bondi Beach from the window of her ground-floor apartment, which is just across the street from the bridge where the two gunmen unleashed rounds of fire.“They just kept reloading,” she said. “They had a ridiculous amount of ammunition and multiple guns.”The two gunmen, whom police identified on Monday as a 50-year-old man and his 24-year-old son, attacked a festival marking the first night of the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens of others.As soon as the shooters appeared to be incapacitated, Ms. Davidson said, she ran over to help, as the police were occupied making sure the gunmen were contained. Ambulances were having trouble getting to the scene because people had abandoned their cars in the intersection to flee, she said.One female officer had been shot in her bulletproof vest, which Ms. Davidson said she had pulled off to make sure the officer was not seriously harmed. Other people nearby led Ms. Davidson to the other side of the bridge, where the Hanukkah event had been taking place.“It was a war zone,” Ms. Davidson said.She treated about half a dozen people with gunshot wounds to the legs, butt or shoulders. At least one person was shot in the back, seemingly as they were running away, she said.David Smith, 25, is a volunteer with Community Health Support, a Jewish organization that responds to those in medical need. A lifelong resident of Bondi Beach, he was dispatched by the group to head to the scene of the shooting, he said.He went from patient to patient, assessing their injuries and tagging them based on the priority of their medical need — red for the most urgent, which included more than 20 victims. People were screaming and children were looking for their parents, he recalled, as some of the injured cried out in dismay that they had done nothing to deserve this.He was on the scene for three to four hours, Mr. Smith said. Because of how tight-knit Bondi’s Jewish community is, he knew three of the dead and three of the injured who were still in the hospital, he said.The tragedy was all the more unfathomable because the scenic beach has been the backdrop to his everyday routines for as long as he can remember, he said.“This is my morning run, this is my afternoon swim,” he said.Information about the father-and-son suspects has begun to emerge.ImageA surfer walking past police at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Monday, a day after gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration there, killing 15 people and wounding dozens of others.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesThe suspects in the Hanukkah mass shooting that killed 15 people at a popular Sydney beach on Sunday were a man who first came to Australia in 1998 and his Australian-born son, neither of whom appeared to have a previous criminal record, officials said.“The offenders are a 50-year-old and 24-year-old male who are father and son,” Mal Lanyon, the New South Wales police commissioner, said at a news conference in Sydney on Monday morning. The father was killed by the police at the scene of the shooting, which targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. The authorities said on Monday that they expected to bring criminal charges against his son, who was wounded and was hospitalized in critical condition.As of Monday afternoon, officials had not identified either man by name. The father first came to Australia in 1998 on a student visa, said Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who did not say which country the man had come from. In 2001, his student visa was replaced with a partner visa, and he had been in the country legally ever since, Mr. Burke said. The son is an Australian-born citizen, he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday, without providing details, that the son had come to the attention of law enforcement authorities in October 2019, “on the basis of being associated with others.” But “the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Mr. Albanese said.The police said there was no indication that either man had a criminal history prior to Sunday. “There was very little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities,” said Mr. Lanyon, the police commissioner. The attack, which targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, a tourist spot packed with visitors and locals, horrified Jews in Australia and beyond at the start of the festival of lights, and drew condemnation from leaders around the world. In addition to the 15 victims killed, dozens of other people were wounded.Mr. Lanyon declared the attack a terrorist incident on Sunday night. But on Monday, he declined to comment on whether police had any indications of the gunmen’s motives, ideological leanings or ties, saying that investigators needed more time to dig.Mr. Lanyon said that the elder gunman had a firearms license dating back about 10 years and that six weapons were registered in his name. In a news conference on Monday, Mr. Lanyon said the man had a recreational hunting license that allowed him to be part of a gun club and possess a long arms weapon. Six firearms were recovered, Mr. Lanyon said, adding that the authorities would conduct ballistics and forensics tests to determine whether the weapons matched those registered to the elder suspect and used in the attack.The police also recovered two “rudimentary” but “active” improvised explosive devices at the scene, Mr. Lanyon said.What to know about the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting.ImageEmergency services responding at the scene of the shooting on Bondi Beach, in Sydney, on Sunday.Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York TimesA long-serving rabbi of the local Jewish community. A French citizen celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney. A Holocaust survivor.They were among the victims of a terror attack at a Jewish celebration in Sydney on Sunday, which killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more. The authorities said on Monday that the victims ranged in age from 10 to 87.Details are still emerging about the victims of the attack, which authorities said targeted attendees of a Hanukkah celebration held on Bondi Beach, one of Australia’s most iconic beaches.Here’s what we know.Rabbi Eli SchlangerRabbi Schlanger, the assistant rabbi in Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event, was killed in the attack.His death was confirmed by Chabad, a global organization based in Brooklyn dedicated to strengthening and enriching Jewish life by providing religious, educational, social and cultural services around the world.The organization said in a social media post that Rabbi Schlanger had served the Bondi community as a rabbi and chaplain for 18 years, since his marriage to his wife Chaya.The event he organized, Hanukkah by the Sea, was intended to be “the perfect family event to celebrate light, warmth, and community,” according to a social media post on Instagram. He was the “heart and soul” of the Chabad event, said Chaim Kastel, a nephew of the rabbi who works as a jeweler in New York.“He’s the guy on the microphone, he’s the guy getting everyone excited,” Mr. Kastel said. “He was the life behind these events.”In 2023, he was among a delegation of rabbis who visited Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack, according to the Australian Jewish News.Dan ElkayamDan Elkayam, a French citizen, was among the victims of the attack, President Emmanuel Macron said on social media on Sunday.“It is with deep sadness that I learn of the death of our compatriot Dan Elkayam in the antisemitic terrorist attack in Sydney,” he said. “My thoughts are with his family and loved ones.” Mr. Elkayam had been celebrating Hanukkah at the event in Sydney, Chabad said in a social media post.Alex KleytmanMr. Kleytman, a native of Ukraine, was killed in Sunday’s shooting, Chabad said on Sunday. A survivor of the Holocaust from Ukraine, Mr. Kleytman had attended the event with his children and grandchildren, the organization said.He died shielding his wife, Larisa, from the gunman’s bullets, the group added. He is survived by his wife, his two children and 11 grandchildren.Reuven MorrisonMr. Morrison, a businessman originally from the Soviet Union, “discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney,” Chabad said. He spent his time in between Melbourne, where he and his wife moved for his daughter’s education, and Sydney, where he did business, the group added.The InjuredArsen Ostrovsky, who told the news media that he had moved only two weeks ago from Israel to Australia, where he will lead the Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, was wounded in the attack. He said in interviews with Australian news outlets that he had seen at least one gunman “firing randomly in all directions.” A bullet grazed his head, he said later in a post on X, but added that he would make a full recovery.Aaron Boxerman and Ségolène Le Stradic contributed reporting.A bystander tackled and disarmed one of the Sydney gunmen, video shows.Video0:29A video verified by The New York Times shows a man wrestling a gun away from one of the shooters at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.Video verified by The New York Times shows a bystander — who local authorities called a hero — tackling and disarming one of the gunmen who targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday.The video shows a man, apparently unarmed, sneaking up on one of the shooters from between two cars and jumping on him from behind before wrestling a long gun from his hands.Officials have not identified the bystander and The New York Times has not verified his identity.Chris Minns, the premier of the state of New South Wales, told reporters on Sunday that he had seen the video. “That man is a genuine hero,” he said. “And I’ve got no doubt that there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery.”At a news conference on Monday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia commended emergency medical workers and ordinary civilians who had risked their lives to help others.“People rushing toward danger, to show the best of the Australian character, that’s who we are, people who stand up for our values,” Mr. Albanese said.Responding to the footage on Sunday, Mr. Minns shook his head and said: “Unbelievable. It’s the most unbelievable scene I’ve ever seen. A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and single-handedly disarming him. Putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people.”President Trump, speaking at the White House on Sunday afternoon, echoed that praise. “A very, very brave person,” Mr. Trump said. The man, he added, “saved a lot of lives.”