NSW health minister says Bondi attack death toll may rise
Penry Buckley
Following the update from NSW Health on the injured patients being treated across nine Sydney hospitals, the NSW minister, Ryan Park, has spoken to 2GB.
Emergency services have said 42 people were taken to hospital after the attack – two people, including one child, died overnight and two people have been discharged.
There are now 38 people being treated in hospital, with seven people in a critical condition, while another four are in a critical but stable condition.
Park says people may need to be prepared for the death toll to rise. 16 people have been confirmed dead, including one of the alleged gunmen.
We’ve got a number of people who are in very, very serious and critical ways, in terms of where they are at the moment, and that’s something that we are preparing for, but we are giving them the very best opportunity to recover.
I’m confident in the skill and dedication of our frontline clinicians and our paramedics who perform miracles at the pre-hospital situation, and now those in the hospital working miracles for them.
Key events
Luca Ittimani
Local returns to the beach: ‘It’s all very eerie and I’ve never seen Bondi like this’
Josh, a Bondi local, returned to the beach this morning less than 12 hours after he fled the shooting on Sunday.
He lives just minutes from the shore and was walking his dog by the beach last night when the shooting began.
I heard the gunshots and just thought it was fireworks. I’d just seen a crowd of people running and hiding behind cars and jumping over fences, and yeah, just panic in people’s eyes. People running for their lives.
Josh picked up his dog and ran back to his apartment, passing others seeking shelter as he went. One young woman hid in his apartment. After just a few hours of sleep, he felt he had to go on his normal morning walk.
[I felt] a bit apprehensive about coming out again. I just wanted to see. If things like these happen, you can’t sort of stay indoors with your head in under the cover. You have to sort of come out eventually, I suppose. It’s very sad. It’s all very eerie and I’ve never seen Bondi like this. From six o’clock in the morning, usually, people are swimming, running, surfing.
After his walk Josh will go to work, like dozens of others visiting the beach before they have to go on with their day.
I’ve got work. So, I mean, yeah. I don’t know. I’ll see how it goes. Probably won’t do very much, but we’ll see.
In pictures: Anthony Albanese meets police officers and lays flowers at Bondi Pavilion
Alleged gunmen named
Nino Bucci
The alleged Bondi gunmen have been identified as father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram.
Naveed, 24, was arrested at the scene, but Sajid, 50, who was first identified by the Sydney Morning Herald, was shot dead by police.
Tony Abbott says Australia must not ‘import hatred from overseas’
Former prime minister Tony Abbott spoke to 2GB earlier about the attack. Abbott is among those who have blamed increased social discohesion following 7 October, including pro-Palestinian marches, for the attack. He says:
It’s a bleak day but we’ve got to learn the right lessons from it. And this is the kind of terrible, terrible thing that happens when we have hate on our streets. And we’ve had hate on our streets from that appalling occasion on 9 October, we’ve seen terrible marches promoting death to the IDF, the extirpation of Israel, across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and elsewhere.
I just think we need to learn the right lessons. And obviously there has to be a much greater stress on Australian values, and I think we just have to be much more determined not to import hatred from overseas, because whatever else might be behind this attack, plainly it was the supreme expression of Jew hatred … It must be fiercely cracked down upon by every level of government.
Tom McIlroy
Antisemitism envoy says calling out hate is ‘not enough’
Anthony Albanese’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, says she is seeking an urgent acceleration of her recommendations to the government, released in July.
Segal said the prime minister and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, were right to call out creeping antisemitism in Australia, but better guardrails were needed to stop hate across society.
“I think the government has called out the hate and the prime minister has been out there last night and today calling it out,” she told Guardian Australia.
But calling it out is not enough. We need a whole series of actions that involve the public sector, and government ministers, in education in schools, universities, on social media and among community leaders, community activities. It has got to be a whole society approach.
I think that the government needs to accelerate what it needs to do and I am hoping to meet with the prime minister and members of the government to convey to them an acceleration of the plan.
Segal has likened the scale of the attack to the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, and said police and government needed to say more about firearms laws.
The prime minister spoke of Jewish members of the community being embraced. I think that’s wonderful, but we need more than embracing them. We need a whole series of actions to convey to the rest of the community how hateful action is completely unacceptable.
NSW health minister says Bondi attack death toll may rise
Penry Buckley
Following the update from NSW Health on the injured patients being treated across nine Sydney hospitals, the NSW minister, Ryan Park, has spoken to 2GB.
Emergency services have said 42 people were taken to hospital after the attack – two people, including one child, died overnight and two people have been discharged.
There are now 38 people being treated in hospital, with seven people in a critical condition, while another four are in a critical but stable condition.
Park says people may need to be prepared for the death toll to rise. 16 people have been confirmed dead, including one of the alleged gunmen.
We’ve got a number of people who are in very, very serious and critical ways, in terms of where they are at the moment, and that’s something that we are preparing for, but we are giving them the very best opportunity to recover.
I’m confident in the skill and dedication of our frontline clinicians and our paramedics who perform miracles at the pre-hospital situation, and now those in the hospital working miracles for them.
Australians need to ‘step forward and say they are with the Jewish community’, rabbi says
Rabbi Mendel Kastel lost his brother-in-law in the Bondi shooting last night, telling ABC News Breakfast the attack was “devastating”.
Kastel says he was there at the Chanukah by the Sea festival with his wife and children when the attack occurred.
He says he has been trying to support families who have lost loved ones and those still trying to connect with their loved ones who were taken to hospital.
People are in shock at the moment, there are things that need to be done, there are families that need to connect with loved ones who are in hospital and we need to find which hospital they’re in, be able to advocate for them, be able to get the messages through. For those that have passed away, we need to start looking at working with coroners to be able to then have funerals as soon as possible.
Kastel says Australians need to step forward to support the Jewish community.
What I found more recently is people sort of shying away and I think it’s time that people actually step up and say, you know what – we need to step forward and say we are with the Jewish community … It’s country-wide, every individual needs to step up and say ‘we want our country back, we want to have peace, the tranquillity, the beautiful Australia that we have grown up in’.
New Zealand media reports its government has increased security measures for the Jewish community in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.
New Zealand prime minister, Christopher Luxon, says he has contacted Anthony Albanese and released a statement to X, condemning the attack:
Hanukah is a time of peace and joy, not pain and grief. This vile act of hatred is something all New Zealanders condemn.
Luxon said New Zealand police are meeting with Jewish community leaders to give them reassurances around the extra security.
The NZ ministry of foreign affairs and trade has said it is not aware of any New Zealanders involved in the attack.
Surf lifesavers ‘acted immediately’ to offer first aid to injured shooting victims
Surf Life Saving NSW says its community and volunteers are in shock and deeply saddened after the shooting attack.
In a statement, SLS NSW said volunteer lifesavers provided first aid, and helped move people to safety while the attack was under way.
They said no lifesavers were physically injured during the attack, and offered their condolences to the families and communities who have lost loved ones.
Not surprisingly, many volunteer lifesavers acted immediately to respond, providing first aid including CPR, to injured victims, shepherding people to safety inside both the Bondi and North Bondi Surf Life Saving Clubs while the attack was still under way and giving assistance to emergency services.
Our surf clubs have, and should always be, places of safe haven and yesterday’s tragedy will no doubt galvanise our members to come together, support each other and their community in solidarity against terror and fear.
Dan Jervis-Bardy
Albanese visits scene of Bondi beach attack
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is visiting the scene of last night’s mass shooting at Bondi beach.
Albanese lay a bouquet of flowers outside Bondi Pavilion, pausing briefly in memory of the victims of the atrocity.
Earlier, Albanese met with police at Bondi police station after holding an early morning press conference with the NSW premier, Chris Minns, and the NSW police commissioner, Mal Lanyon.
Burns says minimisation of targeting Jewish people must be tackled ‘head-on’
Burns says there has been a “dehumanisation” of the Jewish community over the past two years.
He tells ABC News Breakfast there needs to be not only legislative responses but also cultural changes to stop antisemitism.
Burns says he has seen the minimisation or legitimisation of attacks on Jewish institutions and the Jewish community.
Too often, you have instances where people are allowed to dehumanise one another in the context of political debate and in the context of difficult discussions …
When we talk about what the legislative responses might be … I think what’s really important is that it’s not only legislative responses that obviously will inevitably have to come, but also cultural ones where we are stamping out in our institutions the minimisation of targeting of Jewish people, the minimising of or legitimising targeting Jewish institutions, and legitimising of targeting Jewish people and this is something that, especially on the progressive side of politics, we need to confront head-on.
‘This will tear apart the Jewish community,’ Labor MP says
Federal Labor MP Josh Burns says last night’s attack is “one of the most awful things I can remember”.
Burns, who is Jewish, tells ABC News Breakfast that the Jewish community has been “really worried about this for a long time”.
For terror to have occurred in the way in which it has and for people who have lost their lives, including a 12-year-old girl, a Rabbi, and this will tear apart the Jewish community in Sydney and across the country and clearly across the world as well …
You can’t go to a Jewish school or to a Jewish community organisation in Australia without there being some form of security and even to some extent there’s armed guards outside of schools. So it’s a daily reality for Jewish communities in Australia that we were always nervous and about this could happen.
Burns says the Australian community must honour and respect those who have been killed, and “work out how do we prevent this ever happening again”.
Benita Kolovos
More tributes for French national killed
More tributes have poured in for victim Dan Elkayam, who the French government confirmed had died in yesterday’s shooting.
In a post on Instagram, Arncliffe Aurora Football Club, in southern Sydney, said Elkayam was a member of their premier league squad for the upcoming 2026 season. It went on:
Dan was a valued and deeply respected member of our football community. Our hearts are with his family, friends, teammates, and all those who loved him during this unimaginably difficult time.
We extend our deepest condolences and stand in solidarity with everyone affected by this tragedy. Out of respect for Dan and his loved ones, we ask that privacy and compassion be shown as they grieve.
Dan will always remain part of our club.
Plibersek confirms cabinet to meet this morning
Tanya Plibersek says she was at a Hanukah in the Park event in Newtown last night when the attack occurred, and attendees were all told to disperse.
The attack occurred at a Chanukah by the Sea event at Bondi beach last night.
Speaking to Sunrise this morning, the cabinet minister and member for Sydney said she and her children had been to that same event many times in past years.
This is an act of evil done by evil people. I’ve been to Hanukah by the Sea many times. I’ve taken my kids there. Last night I was at Hanukah in the Park in Newtown when the message came through that there’d been a security incident at Bondi. No more detail than that, but we had to disperse.
Plibersek also confirmed the federal cabinet will meet this morning. Asked whether the terror level needs to be changed, she says she has no doubt the cabinet will discuss it.
Bondi shooting press conference recap
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Police confirmed the alleged gunmen, one 50-year-old and one 24-year-old, were father and son – the older man was shot dead by police on Sunday while the younger man remains in hospital with injuries. Police are not looking for any other suspects.
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The two men were staying at an address in Campsie in south-west Sydney.
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There were two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) found at the scene that were active but not detonated, and were taken and rendered safe by police.
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Two police officers are in a critical but stable position in hospital.
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NSW premier Chris Minns said his government is already looking at law reform around gun control.
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Police will increase their presence today around Jewish places of worship and other areas where the Jewish community frequent.
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Police say they are still investigating any motives or ideologies of the two men, and would not discuss any further details.
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Anthony Albanese called the attack a “pure act of evil” and said the government will “dedicate every single resource that is required” to respond.
Here’s what we know after the terror attack so far:
