With heavy hearts, Jews in Israel lit the year's first Hanukkah candles, mourning after gunmen opened fire on a Jewish gathering in Australia, killing 15 and reviving painful memories of the October 7, 2023 attack.

Sunday's attack in Bondi Beach was Australia's worst mass shooting in decades, and has been decried as antisemitic "terrorism" by Israeli authorities and many others around the world.

"It was awful and so reminiscent of October 7. For many people here, it's very traumatic," Bill Fogel, 69, told AFP in Jerusalem, referring to Hamas's deadly 2023 cross-border attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 on the Israeli side.

The Israeli-American said he had lit the first Hanukkah candle on Sunday with friends from Sydney's Jewish community and........

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