Antisemetic massacre in Australia leads to call for new crackdown on guns |
In the late afternoon of Sunday, December 14, 2025, dozens of gunshots interrupted the celebrations on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, where hundreds of people had gathered. The latest casualty figures are 16 dead and at least 40 injured, and what is certain is that this was an antisemitic massacre, the most violent in the country’s modern history.
Among the victims was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad movement; Alexander Kleytman, 87, a Holocaust survivor; and a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, whose family has asked that her surname not be published.
According to reports from the Australian police, the two assailants are believed to be father and son, identified as Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24; the former was killed at the scene of the attack while the latter was hospitalized with injuries. The scene that is most emblematic for the chaos of those minutes is a video circulated on various platforms: a passerby runs toward one of the two gunmen, tackles him and wrestles the weapon from his hands.
The passerby is Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, a fruit seller, who according to collected testimonies prevented an even higher number of victims; he was injured and underwent surgery. The Premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, called him “a true hero.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack “an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism” and added that for the........