1,000 people were in attendance at Bondi Beach Chabad event

Only 2 cops were on duty at Sydney Hanukkah event attacked by terrorists, official says

Rabbi blasts tolerance for ‘vile statements’ at anti-Israel rallies preceding massacre; first funerals to be held Wednesday as officials say some of 15 victims still being IDed

Only two police officers were on duty at the Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, where two terrorists killed 15 people and wounded dozens more, a senior official said Tuesday.

The revelation came as information continued to surface about the father-and-son duo who carried out the terror shooting, and as Jewish community leaders accused the Australian government of allowing antisemitism to fester leading up to the attack.

“The police were tasked with being on the site during the festival. My understanding is that there were two in the park during or at the beginning of the shooting, the assassinations,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns told Sky News Australia.

“And there were police in the vicinity, so a patrol car pulled up within moments of the firing beginning,” he said. “I think it’s important to note that police, obviously, when the shooting began, did engage the shooters and there’s two in critical condition in NSW hospitals.”

Witnesses have said the two gunmen opened fire for as long as ten minutes, shooting into the crowd of families attending the event to mark the Jewish festival of lights.

Some 1,000 people were in attendance at the open-air event. The attack was the deadliest to strike a Diaspora Jewish community in decades, and the worst antisemitic attack outside of Israel since October 7, 2023.

Minns said the police force is now gathering information on the locations of other nearby officers at the time the attack began.

“We have several police officers who engaged with sidearms from 50 meters [160 feet] away, firing with someone who had a long-arm and a tactical advantage over NSW Police,” Minns said. “So they did engage and they did shoot both of the offenders, killing one of them.”

New video has emerged of unarmed bystanders Boris and Sofia Gurman who sought to thwart the gunmen, father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram, and almost stopped them before they began their killing spree. The Gurmans were slain.

Another civilian, Ahmed al Ahmed, tackled Sajid Akram and disarmed him before being shot several times in the arm and shoulder. Al Ahmed is hospitalized and expected to recover.

Reuven Morrison, 62, hurled items at Sajid Akram, after al Ahmed had disarmed him. Morrison was then shot dead by Naveed Akram.

Rabbi: ‘Vile statements’ at anti-Israel protests were tolerated

In the wake of the attack, Australian Jews have vented their frustration at the government’s response to antisemitism. A Chabad rabbi told a vigil at Bondi Beach on Tuesday that community leaders had warned the government that anti-Israel protests were endangering the Jewish community.

“We begged, ‘Shut these demonstrations down, legislate for it, find the legal means,’” Rabbi Nochum Schapiro of North Shore Chabad told the crowd, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

“And those who shouted ‘Gas the Jews,’ or ‘Where’s the Jews’ – what difference does it make, same vile statements – were not prosecuted, were not stopped, were not sent out of the country, were allowed to continue with this vile hate. So we ask [politicians] now: Legislate,” he said.

Schapiro was referring to an infamous protest in Sydney just days after the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, attack. Jews were warned away by police from the protest, where an Israeli flag was burned. Video from the demonstration appeared to show protesters chanting “Gas the Jews.” New South Wales police later said the chant was determined “with overwhelming certainty” to have in fact been, “Where’s the Jews.”

Schapiro said he wrote to Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese in August to warn him that Australia’s recognition of Palestinian statehood, which was declared in September, would endanger the Jewish community.

“I didn’t even get a response,” he said. “You cannot disconnect the Jewish people from the Jewish land. The Jewish people and the Jewish land are one.”

“And when you vilify the leaders of the Jewish land of Israel, and when you constantly criticize them and then say that they must give up parts of this land… that endangers Jews everywhere,” he said, according to the Herald.

“When Israel is criticized, then the way it’s received by the antisemites is that it’s okay to attack Jews,” Schapiro said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, demanded that Western governments do more to protect global Jewish communities and fight antisemitism in a brief video message shared by his office on Tuesday.

“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to combat antisemitism and provide the required security and protection for Jewish communities around the world,” Netanyahu said in the Hebrew-language video.  “They would do well to heed our warnings. I am demanding action — now.”

First funerals for victims to be held Wednesday

The first funerals of victims of the attack will be held on Wednesday, a volunteer for the Zaka Jewish emergency service told The Times of Israel.

As it stands now, six of the 15 victims are scheduled to be buried on Wednesday, said Simcha Greineman, a volunteer for Zaka who flew from Israel to Australia to help with the religious preparations for the burials.

Greineman, who with other Zaka volunteers is charged with gathering the body parts of the victims in order to give them a proper burial, said his team arrived in Sydney on Monday, but that police only gave them access to the crime scene on Tuesday.

Identification efforts will continue throughout the night ahead of the funerals, he added.

“We want to make sure we have whatever remains we can to conduct their rites,” Greineman said.

Australian officials have been unable to reveal the identities of some of the victims because they are foreign nationals, and authorities don’t have DNA records or other forensic details needed to confirm their identities, Greineman said.

India confirms attacker’s origin, says terror ‘mutual threat’

Meanwhile, information has continued to come out about the attackers, who authorities have said were inspired by the Islamic State terror group, and whose activities and travel abroad are currently under investigation.

Indian police said Tuesday that Sajid Akram was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad but had limited contact with his family in India.

“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalization,” Telangana state police said in a statement.

At a meeting in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar denounced terrorism as a “mutual threat.”

“Terror is a mutual threat for both countries, and we are standing always with the people of India,” Sa’ar said during joint remarks.

Jaishankar responded that India condemns the attack “in the strongest possible terms.”

“We are both countries that have a policy of zero tolerance towards terrorism,” Jaishankar said, telling his counterpart, “We appreciate your consistent support to our fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”