2025 Bondi Beach shooting

• 1. Introduction

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  The 2025 Bondi Beach shooting began at 6:42 on the evening of the 14th of December 2025. At Archer Park, just east of the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney, around 1,000 people had gathered for Chanukah by the Sea. Chabad organised the annual Hanukkah celebration, which had opened at 5:00 pm on the first day of the holiday. Then two men on a footbridge above the car park began firing into the crowd. Police later alleged that they were a father and his son. This documentary asks who the two gunmen were and what Australian intelligence already knew about them. It asks who moved toward the gunfire with their bare hands. It asks how a country with strict gun laws came to face an attack like this, and what Australia changed in the weeks and months that followed.

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• 2. Warnings Before December

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  In October 2023, the Gaza war began, and Australia's Jewish community soon reported a rise in antisemitic attacks on individuals and institutions. Islamophobia climbed as well. But the source points out that the pattern was older than the war. Extremist groups, including the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, had been growing over the previous decade. In January 2024, the federal government banned Nazi salutes and symbols such as the swastika. In February 2025, those laws were tightened to carry mandatory minimum jail sentences. In November 2025, a neo-Nazi rally took place outside the parliament of New South Wales.

  In August 2024, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation raised the national terrorism threat level from possible to probable. One reason it gave was the risk of community tensions and political violence linked to the Gaza war. About a month before the attack, Mossad warned Australian intelligence about possible attacks from the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Australian Financial Review described Mossad as helping ASIO.

  During the 2010s, around 500 Australians who backed the self-declared Islamic State tried to move to its territory in Iraq and Syria, and many succeeded. Many of them were killed in combat. Dozens of survivors remain in camps guarded by Kurdish forces in Rojava, in Syria. From 2014, Islamic State told its supporters around the world to carry out so-called lone wolf attacks. Such attacks have often targeted Jewish or Christian festivals. Yet the group has not historically focused on the Palestine conflict with Israel.

  Mass casualty terrorism had always been rare in Australia. On that December evening, the country would see its worst terrorist attack and the first fatal attack on Jews in its history.

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• 3. Six Minutes on the Bridge

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  At 6:40 pm, a silver 2001 Hyundai Elantra pulled up on Campbell Parade, near a footbridge. Boris and Sofia Gurman, a Russian-Jewish Australian couple, noticed an Islamic State flag displayed on the parked car. One gunman was already firing from the footbridge while another stepped out of the vehicle. The Gurmans grappled with him and seized his gun. The second gunman then picked up another rifle, and one or both attackers shot the couple dead. A dashcam recorded the struggle at 6:42 pm.

  The footbridge arches over the car park north of the Bondi Pavilion. Police allege that from there the two men threw three pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb into the crowd. None of them detonated. The gunmen then began shooting.

  The fencing around the festival worked against the guests, because the gunfire trapped dozens of people inside it. Videos showed two men in black tops firing from the bridge. At one point the younger gunman paused and seemed to wave away bystanders approaching from other directions. Then he turned back to the Hanukkah gathering and resumed firing.

  A bystander recorded a nearly continuous video lasting 11 minutes, filmed from the street side of the bridge about 50 m away. It captures the closing moments of the shooting. It shows the first police officer stepping onto the footbridge, and it shows the wounded being treated.

  Several officers fired pistols at the gunmen from both sides of the bridge. A detective sheltering behind a tree about 40 m away fired from behind and killed one of the men with a shot to the head. The other gunman was hit twice in the stomach, apparently by that detective and a female officer.

  According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the gunmen fired 82 rounds in total, 61 from Naveed Akram and 21 from Sajid Akram. Police fired another 26. The attack lasted six minutes, from 6:42 to 6:48 pm. The first emergency calls came at about 6:45, and police confirmed an ongoing incident in a statement at 6:57. More than 123 ambulance personnel attended.

  The Guardian reported that the first thing officers did on reaching the bridge was give CPR to the wounded Naveed, who was then rushed to hospital in critical condition.

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• 4. Running Toward the Gunfire

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  Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Syrian Australian Muslim and father of two, was born in Al-Nayrab, near Idlib in Syria. He was unarmed. As the older gunman walked off the footbridge toward the park, al-Ahmed crept toward him by crouching between two parked cars. He tackled the man from behind, seized the weapon, turned it on him, and propped it against a tree. Gefen Bitton, an Israeli citizen living in Australia, saw this and ran back toward the gunfire to join him.

  The second gunman briefly left the bridge and fired three shots at the pair, wounding Bitton. As the disarmed gunman retreated to the bridge, Reuven Morrison charged at him and threw a brick. Earlier, bystander footage had caught Morrison confronting one of the attackers, apparently to draw fire away from others. The disarmed man picked up another weapon. Al-Ahmed was shot twice and wounded, and Morrison was killed.

  Another Muslim bystander, a refugee from Iran, also rushed to help. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation calls him only AB, and he has stayed anonymous. He meant to disarm one gunman and did not know there were two. He reached the bridge soon after the Akrams were shot and kicked a gun away from Naveed, who was still alive. Police fired at AB along with the gunmen, and he was nearly hit. In March 2026, the ABC reported that the Australian Government was trying to deport him to Nauru over drug and assault convictions. His immigration lawyer says those convictions stem from untreated trauma from his time in Iran.

  A different bystander walked onto the bridge and kicked a weapon away from one of the gunmen. Continued fire forced him to duck, and other bystanders briefly mistook him for an attacker.

  Off-duty volunteer lifesavers from Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club and North Bondi Surf Lifesaving Club, next to Archer Park, rushed to victims who were still under fire. They were on the unsecured scene before police and ambulance crews arrived. They used surfboards as stretchers and used up the club's stock of bandages. About 250 people took shelter inside the club, including a heavily pregnant woman who went into labour during the attack. The lifesavers also made one water rescue. Kellie Sloane, the New South Wales Opposition Leader, was present and helped them give first aid.

  After a request from Lifeblood for O-negative donations, more than 50,000 people volunteered to give blood.

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• 5. The Fifteen

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  Sixteen people died in the attack, including the gunman Sajid Akram, who was killed at the scene by police. Fourteen deaths happened at the scene and two in hospital. Forty people were injured and taken to hospital, including Naveed Akram and two police officers. Five were in critical condition. Of the fifteen victims, eleven were men, three were women, and one was a 10-year-old girl.

  Matilda, aged 10, was the youngest to die. She was a student at La Perouse Public School and the child of Ukrainian immigrants.

  Alex Kleytman, 87, was a Holocaust survivor who had emigrated from Ukraine to Australia and worked as a civil engineer. Marika Pogany, 82, was born in Czechoslovakia and delivered meals and services to Jewish seniors. Tibor Weitzen, 78, a Soviet-born automotive engineer, died while shielding his wife and Edith Brutman. Brutman, 68, was vice president of the anti-prejudice and anti-discrimination committee of B'nai B'rith NSW.

  Two rabbis were killed. Eli Schlanger, 41, was an Israeli-Australian dual citizen, an assistant rabbi of Chabad, and a chaplain for Corrective Services NSW. Yaakov Levitan, 39, was born in South Africa and served as secretary of the Sydney Beth Din. Peter Meagher, 61, was a retired police detective and a manager at Randwick DRUFC. He had been hired as a freelance photographer for the event.

  Dan Elkayam, 27, was a French national who played for Rockdale Ilinden FC and worked as an IT analyst for NBCUniversal. Adam Smyth, 50, was a Bondi local out walking with his wife. Boris Tetleroyd, 68, a Soviet-born singer, came with his son, who was injured. Tania Tretiak, 68, a Soviet-born Randwick resident, attended with her Jewish husband and her granddaughter. Reuven Morrison, 62, was a Soviet-born businessman. Boris Gurman was 69 and his wife Sofia was 61.

  Some survivors asked the courts for suppression orders to stop news media publishing their names. The orders were first offered in December, and in April 2026 more survivors chose to use them.

  Without her consent, Liverpool Hospital in Western Sydney changed the name of the wounded patient Rosalia Shikhverg on its records and removed the reference to Judaism as her religion. Nine News broke the story in early January. On the 27th of January 2026, Sky News Australia interviewed her, and she said: "Well, in my opinion, they were afraid of staff, not media… They can't trust their own staff." Federal Health Minister Mark Butler told the same channel: "we know that Jewish Australians in our health care system have been nervous about antisemitism in health care".

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• 6. Father and Son

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  Sajid Akram was 50 and owned a fruit shop. His son Naveed was 24, born on the 12th of August 2001, and worked as a bricklayer but was unemployed.

  Telangana Police reported that Sajid was an Indian national, born into a Muslim family in Hyderabad. They described the family as affluent and moderate. He went to Australia in 1998 on a student visa after finishing a business degree, and police said he had no adverse record before leaving. In 2001, he moved to a partner visa, according to home affairs minister Tony Burke, and later held a resident return visa as a permanent resident. His brother in Hyderabad said the family cut ties with him in 2001, when he married a Christian Italian-Australian woman, Naveed's mother. By the time of the attack the two were estranged. She has owned the family home in Bonnyrigg since Sajid assigned his share to her in 2024. Associates called Sajid controlling and very secretive. Naveed's maternal uncle said Sajid first showed interest in a gun licence in 2010.

  Naveed was born in Australia, and he is a citizen through his mother and his father's permanent residence. Clarke Jones, a radicalisation expert at the Australian National University, called it unusual for a father and son to attack together. In his experience, he said, "families are the protective factors, the ones who minimise the chances of a young person going out and doing crazy stuff". His colleague Levi West offered another view: "If the two are on board, they are driving each other." Associates and experts who spoke to the ABC's Background Briefing suggested that Sajid may have radicalised his son.

  In October 2019, ASIO began examining Naveed's associations as part of its investigation into Isaac El Matari, the leader of Islamic State's Sydney cell. Naveed followed the preacher William Haddad, also known as Wissam Haddad and Abu Ousayd. Haddad was found in July 2025 to have violated Australia's racial hatred laws, and several men linked to him were convicted of terrorism-related offences. Authorities concluded that Naveed was not a high-risk member of that network. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess confirmed that one of the shooters was known to the agency in 2019. After a 2026 Four Corners investigation, ASIO defended its work and criticised the former undercover agent the ABC used as a source.

  A month before the attack, the pair travelled to the Philippines. According to Filipino officials, they flew into Manila on the 1st of November, Sajid on an Indian passport and Naveed on an Australian one. They then went on to Davao City on the island of Mindanao, where an Islamic State insurgency is ongoing. Hotel staff said they booked seven days and kept extending, staying for 28 days. They rarely left their room, and then only for about an hour, and they had no visitors. The Philippine National Police found no evidence of training. Mindanao's development authority disputed the picture of the island as a terror hotspot.

  Back in Australia, the pair told relatives they were going on a fishing trip to Jervis Bay. In fact they stayed at an Airbnb house in Campsie. Earlier in 2025, they visited a rural property west of Sydney, owned by a Greek army veteran, ostensibly to shoot foxes attacking baby goats and sheep. They spent their time shooting at cardboard targets. In October 2025, a phone video of Naveed showed the two sitting in front of an image of an Islamic State flag, condemning "Zionists". Police said both men had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, two flags of the group were in their car, and documents showed months of planning. On the 30th of December, Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett said there was no evidence that the men belonged to a broader cell or were directed by others.

  On the 18th of December, Islamic State called the attack a source of pride on its Telegram channel, though Reuters and other outlets said this was not a claim of responsibility. In late February 2026, its spokesperson Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari claimed credit, calling the two men soldiers and brave lions.

  Naveed woke from a coma on the 17th of December. That day, police charged him with 59 offences, including 15 murders, one count of committing a terrorist act, and 40 attempted murders. In March 2026, he asked a court to suppress details about his mother, brother and sister, including their names, addresses and workplaces. The court declined on the 2nd of April 2026.

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• 7. Laws and Inquiries

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  Sajid Akram held a firearms licence, owned six guns registered in his name, and belonged to a shooting club, the Zastava Hunting Association. Naveed had trained at the same club. Three firearms were used in the attack, and a fourth was found at the scene. They are believed to be a Beretta BRX1.308 straight-pull rifle and two Stoeger M3000 M3K 12-gauge straight-pull shotguns. Such guns were imported to Australia as a way around the restrictions on pump-action weapons, because their rate of fire is not greatly lower.

  Those restrictions arrived after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which 35 people were killed. They covered automatic, semi-automatic and pump-action rifles, as well as shotguns. Yet the number of guns in Australia and of licensed owners kept rising, reaching a record high before the shooting. New South Wales had 260,000 gun licences in 2025, up from 181,000 in 2001. The attack also raised questions about the pathway from temporary visas to permanent residency, and about licensing firearm owners who are not citizens.

  The day after the shooting, the National Cabinet, made up of the prime minister and the leaders of the states and territories, unanimously agreed to strengthen gun laws. Proposals included limiting ownership to Australian citizens, speeding up a national firearms register, capping the number of guns one person can own, and restricting more types of weapon. On the 19th of December, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a gun buyback program, with costs shared 50:50 between the federal and state governments. On the 24th of December, New South Wales passed the Terrorism and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2025, covering hate speech, offensive symbols, tighter gun controls and restrictions on mass protests. On the 16th of April 2026, the state's Court of Appeal unanimously struck down the anti-protest provisions, ruling that they unconstitutionally burdened the implied freedom of political communication.

  On the 18th of December, the federal government promised to act on every recommendation in a July 2025 report on antisemitism by its special envoy, Jillian Segal. It also announced tougher hate speech laws, new powers for the Minister for Home Affairs to cancel or reject visas of hate preachers, and a taskforce to counter antisemitism in education. Parliament was recalled early, and on the 20th of January 2026, it passed fast-tracked legislation. The House voted 116 to 7 and the Senate 38-22. It became the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism (Criminal and Migration Laws) Act 2026.

  The joint federal and state investigation is called Operation Arques. Police also expanded Operation Shelter, a New South Wales operation to prevent antisemitic and other hate-related attacks. On the 21st of December, Albanese announced a review of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies, led by the retired public servant Dennis Richardson. On the 29th of December, he said a federal royal commission was not planned, since it would give a platform to antisemitic views. On the 8th of January, he reversed course and announced the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, led by the former High Court justice Virginia Bell. The Richardson review became part of it, and the federal body replaced a royal commission that New South Wales had proposed. Albanese later said more could have been done to prevent the attack and that he accepts his share of responsibility. The commission's terms of reference were released on the 9th of January.

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• 8. Aftershocks

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  Within days, online messages called for revenge at Cronulla, the Sydney beach that was the centre of an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim race riot in 2005. Authorities responded by banning public assemblies across metropolitan Sydney for 14 days. A 20-year-old man was charged with using a carriage service to threaten violence on grounds of race or religion, over his attempt to incite retaliation, and he was refused bail.

  Two weeks after the shooting, the Australian National Imams Council reported that hostile acts against Muslims and Islamic institutions had almost tripled. They included vandalism, online abuse and intimidation, especially of women in hijabs. Some groups took to sleeping overnight in mosques to guard them. On the 16th of March 2026, the special envoy to combat Islamophobia, Aftab Malik, reported a 740% rise in Islamophobic incidents nationwide. The council had condemned the attack, and Muslim leaders in Sydney refused to perform funeral rites for the dead gunman or take his body.

  On the 15th of December, synagogues, schools and similar sites across Sydney were closed. Jewish events were cancelled across Australia and New Zealand, and Queensland police increased their presence at Jewish places of worship. Victorian premier Jacinta Allan raised funding for security at Jewish sites. In New Zealand, armed police guarded sites including the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand and Kadimah School.

  Praise for Ahmed al-Ahmed spread worldwide. United States president Donald Trump said a very brave person had "attacked frontally one of the shooters and saved a lot of lives". King Charles's Christmas message honoured those who instinctively place themselves in harm's way to defend others. Benjamin Netanyahu first described the rescuer as a Jew, and the Sydney Morning Herald reported that he "initially got it wrong". Boris Gurman, a Jewish man, had indeed tackled and briefly disarmed Sajid earlier in the attack. Albanese visited al-Ahmed in hospital two days later, and on the 18th of December a fundraising campaign for him had reached 2.5 million.

  False claims spread just as fast. A website impersonating The Daily Aus, registered on the day of the shooting, mislabelled al-Ahmed. Social media posts gave him a different name or called him a Lebanese Maronite Christian or a Jew. A fabricated image made with artificial intelligence, posted on X on the 16th of December, was debunked by Australian Associated Press and Agence France-Presse. A Pakistani man living in Australia was harassed because he shared a name with one of the attackers. Iran's Mehr News Agency called the attack a false flag operation, and Islamic State criticised such claims in its newspaper Al-Naba.

  The country marked the dead in many ways. The Sydney Opera House was lit with an image of menorah candles on the second day of Hanukkah. At the third Ashes Test in Adelaide on the 17th of December, players observed three minutes of silence and wore black armbands. A nationwide minute of silence on the 21st of December formed part of a national day of reflection. Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks included a minute's silence at 11pm and a menorah projected onto the pylons, after criticism of an earlier plan for a dove. A national day of mourning followed on the 22nd of January 2026. The New South Wales government launched One Mitzvah for Bondi, urging people to perform an act of kindness for a neighbour.

  The Sydney Jewish Museum set about preserving the surfboards used as stretchers, the flowers and plush toys left at the site, and recorded eyewitness testimonies. Its senior curator said the incident was "not history yet".

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