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‘It Was Dead People Everywhere’: Inside Australia’s Hanukkah Massacre
People pay respects at Bondi Pavilion to victims of a shooting during a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Among the thousands of people who flocked to Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach on Sunday evening, some were seeking relief from the steamy weather while others joined a local Jewish group to celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah, or festival of light. Advertisements promised a petting farm, face painting, and donuts and proclaimed the goal was to “fill Bondi with joy and light.”
Hours later the scene was a bloodbath.
For between 10 and 20 minutes, two gunmen opened fire on attendees at the Hanukkah event, gunning down men, women, and children as terrified beachgoers fled. More than a dozen people were killed and at least 40 wounded, some critically, including two police officers.
Reuters has pieced together the moments when the Hanukkah turned from celebration to fear through interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, comments from police and officials, video footage of the shooting, and media reports.
Police have not named the two suspects, one of whom was killed and the other critically wounded in a shoot-out with police. But state media ABC and other outlets have identified them as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed.
By Sunday, the men had gathered six firearms owned by the father and multiple improvised explosive devices, police said. The father was a registered firearms owner and belonged to a gun club, according to police.
The two men were residing at a spartan Airbnb in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Campsie, according to the ABC, Australia’s public broadcaster. But the son, a 24-year-old unemployed Sydney bricklayer, called his mother to tell her that he and his father, a 50-year-old shopowner, had gone for a weekend fishing trip on Australia’s eastern coast, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, quoting his mother.
In October 2019, Australia’s intelligence agency examined the son for ties to a self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a Monday press conference. Albanese said the agency decided there had been “no indication of any ongoing threat.”
On Sunday evening, two men allegedly left improvised explosive devices in a silver car near Bondi’s beachfront, according to law enforcement, before heading towards the beach.
Video footage subsequently shows two figures dressed in black atop a concrete bridge leading to a park and Bondi’s crowded waters. Videos taken by bystanders showed both men shooting large, high-powered firearms from that highpoint towards the Hanukkah event.
Footage from a surf camera shows dozens of people sprinting across Bondi’s sand to escape the gunfire. A man who gave his name as Terry said his 15-year-old daughter was part of the stampede.
She took refuge in the well-known Iceberg swimming pools at the southern end of Bondi, said Terry, where she used a stranger’s phone to call him at a separate Hanukkah event he was attending.
“You stand here and you think you’re safe,” he said. But growing antisemitic violence, which many link to the war in Gaza, had made him reconsider his life in Australia. “Maybe we need to move to Israel one day,” he said. “The irony is that that’s looking like the only real safe place in the world we can be as Jews.”
A third video shows the older alleged shooter having moved off the bridge and standing by the festival site. There, the older shooter aims directly at an event attendee and fires while other people run.
Phone footage shows a man identified by local media as Sydney resident Ahmed al Ahmed hiding behind a nearby car. As the older shooter continues firing, Ahmed breaks from behind the car and tackles him from behind, tearing the weapon from his hands and pointing it at him as he retreats. Ahmed was shot twice and was being treated at hospital on Monday.
Drone video subsequently shows the older shooter back on the concrete bridge, where he lies prone while the younger gunman moves back and forth before jolting and falling down.
A sixth video shows three police officers race onto the bridge with weapons outstretched. Another shows them holding two men on the ground, while a bystander runs up to kick the men on the ground.
More footage then shows at least nine law enforcement officers on the bridge, with several kneeling over the prone men, delivering chest compressions. Police said the older man died of his wounds at Bondi.
Hussain Rifi, 18, said he was in a shower block nearby with a group of friends. “We were flexing in the mirror, taking videos, and then we hear it: bang, bang, bang,” said Rifi. Soon, he realized the noises were gunshots.
For roughly 20 minutes, he said he and his friends sheltered near the showers, until the shooting seemed to stop. When he peered around, he saw bodies on the ground.
“There were chunks of something human on the floor,” said Rifi. “It was dead people everywhere.”
Hundreds of police and paramedics descended on the scene, from which dozens of victims and the surviving shooter were taken to local hospitals. The latest death toll is 16, including a 10-year-old girl and a British-born rabbi.
As darkness fell and wind scoured the beach, police began sweeping the grass and sand with flashlights, apparently searching for evidence. ABC reported that law enforcement found an Islamic State flag in the suspected gunmen’s car nearby.
On the other side of the city, law enforcement raided the men’s home in the Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg and their Airbnb in Campsie.
On Bondi’s main road, Rabbi Levi Wolff of Central Sydney Synagogue watched in disbelief. He had raced over from a religious ceremony after hearing the news.
“It’s hard to digest that this is real, that this is something that’s possible on the shores of Australia, somewhere that’s been so hospitable for generations,” he said, before stepping away to take a call from the office of Israel’s president.
“The silent majority” who oppose antisemitism, he said, “has to no longer be silent.”
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2026 Tribeca Film Festival to Screen World Premiere of Israeli Films, Including Noga Erez Documentary
A still from “What Is To Come.” Photo: Tribeca Film Festival
Organizers of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival announced on Thursday the official lineup for this year’s event in June and it includes the world premiere of three Israeli co-productions.
“What Is to Come” will be screened as part of the festival’s International Narrative Competition. The drama from Israel and the United Kingdom is about a woman named Yehudit who unexpectedly loses her husband and is forced to start over on her own. “In the process, she finds that abrupt and painful detours can lead to bright roads,” according to a synopsis of the film. The feature is directed and written by Ruthy Pribar, and stars Ronit Yudkevitch, Yaakov Zada Danielm and Tovit Adis Semay. “What Is to Come” will make its world premiere on June 8.
Pribar’s debut feature film “Asia” screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2020 and won three awards, including the Nora Ephron Prize for Pribar, a best actress award for Shira Haas, and best cinematography for Daniella Nowitz. The film also won nine Ophir Awards in Israel.
“Moishe Badhan (or The Tale of a Wedding Entertainer),” will also make its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this year, in the Viewpoints section. Directed by Gidi Dar and written by Shuli Rand, the co-production from Israel and the US is a comedy-drama about a disgraced Hasidic wedding-comedian who is trying to gather enough funds to marry off his daughter. The cast includes Shuli Rand, Tal Friedman, and American Jewish comedian Elon Gold, who is also an executive producer on the film. The world premiere will take place on June 4.
The 2026 Tribeca Film Festival will also feature the world premiere of the documentary “Noga,” about Israeli alternative pop singer Noga Erez. The movie, which was directed and co-produced by Jono and Benji Bergmann, is a c0-production from Austria, Germany, Israel, and the US. It examines how Erez “must redefine her role as an artist on a global stage” after the Israel-Hamas war breaks out in 2023. The film’s world premiere on June 7 will be followed by an acoustic performance by Erez and her longtime partner in music and life Ori Rousso.
Erez is performing twice at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this month. She has never performed at the festival before and has made history as the first Israeli singer to take to the stage at the annual event in Indio, California.
The 2026 Tribeca Film Festival will run from June 3-14. The event will feature 118 feature films including 103 world premieres, which is the most in the history of the festival, and 86 short films. The festival this year will represent 143 filmmakers, including 55 first-time directors, spanning 44 countries.
“Tribeca began 25 years ago as an act of healing, a mission to reunite our community through the power of storytelling. Today, that purpose feels more urgent than ever,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-chair and co-founder of the Tribeca Festival. “This year’s incredible feature and short film lineup includes stories from filmmakers who make us think, feel, laugh, cry, and ask why. Tribeca remains dedicated to the artists’ voices and diverse perspectives that challenge us to see one another more clearly.”
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Over 1,000 Entertainment Industry Figures Back Israel’s Inclusion in 2026 Eurovision Song Contest
A photographer takes a picture of a TV screen in Wiener Stadthalle, the venue of next year’s Eurovision in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
More than 1,000 members of the entertainment industry have signed an open letter expressing support for Israel’s participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) held in May, in response to demands to have the country excluded from the competition because of its military actions in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war.
Creative Community for Peace, a non-profit organization comprised of prominent members of the entertainment industry, penned the initial open letter in 2024 in response to efforts by anti-Israel activists to have the European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the ESC, ban Israel from the event and to pressure countries and artists to withdraw their participation from the competition. The open letter voiced support for Israel’s inclusion in Eurovision as well as solidarity with the contest’s participants, while denouncing calls for a boycott of the event.
Hundreds more entertainment industry leaders have since added their names to the open letter, including actresses Amy Schumer and Mila Kunis; singer Matisyahu; actors Jeremy Piven and Jerry O’Connell; television writer, producer, and directors Amy Sherman-Palladino and Matthew Weiner; “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins; and “Nobody Wants This” co-creator Erin Foster.
“We have been shocked and disappointed to see some members of the entertainment community calling for Israel to be banished from the contest for responding to the greatest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” the letter stated. “We believe that unifying events such as singing competitions are crucial to help bridge our cultural divides and unite people of all backgrounds through their shared love of music.”
“Music should bring us together,” said O’Connell. “No artist should be silenced for where they are from. These boycott efforts destroy the very connections the arts are meant to build.”
Those who signed the initial open letter back in 2024 include Helen Mirren, Boy George, Liev Schrieber, Sharon Osbourne, Gene Simmons, Debra Messing, David Draiman, Mayim Bialik, Julianna Margulies, and Ginnifer Goodwin.
“Artists and culture are being dragged into the angry, misinformed politics of the moment,” said Osbourne in a released statement. “Attempts to exclude Israelis from the international stage twist art into a tool of division and erode the shared humanity that the arts are meant to preserve. I’ve watched this play out for over three years, and it just breaks my heart.”
The 2026 Eurovision semi-finals will take place on May 12 and 14, and the final live show will be on May 16. The competition is being held in Vienna, Austria.
After the European Broadcasting Union confirmed late last year that it will allow Israel to participate in the 2026 ESC, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Slovenia, and Iceland announced they will not participate in this year’s event.
Spain’s national broadcaster RTVE said it will not broadcast or participate in the event, which marks the first time the country has completely boycotted the ESC since it began participating in the competition in 1961. Spain’s Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun called the move “brave.”
Meanwhile, the EBU confirmed this week that for the first time ever the live shows of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest will be available to watch for free in the United States. It will air on YouTube but also be available for viewing in the US on the Peacock streaming service.
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Yale University Admits Role in Crumbling Public Trust in Higher Education
Graduates enter Old Campus at Yale University for Commencement Day exercises, in New Haven, Connecticut, US May 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Bryan Woolston
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut blamed itself and other elite colleges for having played a role in crumbling public trust in higher education in a new committee report published on Wednesday.
Racial preferences in admissions, prohibitive sticker prices, declining academic standards, and advocacy of divisive progressive causes which polarized the American public to the point that “national divorce” became a byword on social media in recent years all contribute to a sense that elite higher education considers itself a class apart and above regular people, the report said.
Citing polling showing that just over a third of Americans, 36 percent, have “confidence” in higher education as opposed to 57 percent who did in 2016, it noted that “trust in higher education has declined faster than in other institutions and sectors.”
The statistics reveal uncertainty regarding the purpose of higher education and its relevance to a democracy that is contemptuous of gatekeepers and hollow indicators of status.
Yale University’s own opaque system of “preferences” in undergraduate admissions — which it said privileges the wealthy, athletes, and some minorities — is one source of discontent that needs to be addressed, the report said.
Yale University infamously adopted racial preferences under the leadership of president Kingman Brewster in the 1960s, despite growing evidence that the practice created an environment of academic maladjustment and racial division. This led to the creation of segregated programming and academic programs for African Americans, as well as a summer remedial program for minority students — PROP (Pre-Orientation Program) — that was eventually rebranded in the late 1990s when its apparent subtext proved unpalatable to a new generation of students.
“We recommend that Yale reduce preferences for special classes of applicants. We also believe that the admissions system can be made more effective and less onerous for applicants by establishing and making a public minimum standard of academic achievement necessary for consideration,” the report continued. “Under the current system, Yale informs potential students that everything matters, leaving applicants scrambling to second-guess what the university wants.”
The report authors, drawn from across Yale’s faculty, went on to recommend adopting a “minimum SAT score” or “Yale specific entrance exam” to “ensure that no student is admitted without the requisite academic preparation ability.”
Elite undergraduate admissions is a matter of growing importance to the Jewish community, as it has seen its representation in some Ivy League institutions plunge. According to a report issued by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance in March, Jewish undergraduate enrollment at Harvard has plummeted to lows not seen since the eve of World War II and the Holocaust, falling to just 7 percent.
The same report also found that Jews are the only minority group at Yale University whose admittance rates have declined since the university expanded the size of its undergraduate class in 2018. The revelation has revived memories of elite education’s 20th century practice of “restriction,” by which admissions officers relied on a “holistic assessment” of applicants to deny admission to Jews.
Yale’s new report also touched on the charged issue of viewpoint diversity, a point of vulnerability for most universities.
“The campus has not been immune from pressures toward conformity, intimidation, and social shaming that have affected the rest of higher education and, indeed, the rest of American society,” it said, referencing a 2015 viral incident in which a Yale undergraduate shrieked at professor Nicholas Christakis because he had implored progressive students not to be hypersensitive over Halloween costumes portraying people of color. “Echo chambers do not produce the best teaching, research, or scholarship.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.