Sydney mourns 15 killed as Israeli ambassador calls for greater Jewish protection

SYDNEY – Israel’s Ambassador to Australia called for greater protection for Jewish people in Australia as dozens of people lined up on Dec 16 at Sydney’s Bondi Beach to pay tribute to the 15 victims and those wounded in the weekend’s

Hanukkah festival shootings

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The attack by two gunmen on Dec 14 was Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and is being investigated as a terror act targeting the Jewish community.

The death toll stands at 16

including one gunman, aged 50, who was shot by the police on Dec 14. The ​man’s 24-year-old son and alleged accomplice was in critical condition in hospital, the police said.

Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon urged the Australian government to take all required steps to secure the lives of Jews in Australia, with the latest attack the worst in a recent spate of anti-Semitic crimes in the city.

“Only Australians of Jewish faith are forced to worship their gods behind closed doors, CCTV, guards,” Mr Maimon said, after laying flowers at the temporary memorial in Bondi and paying his respects to the victims.

“My heart is torn apart... It is insane,” he added.

A string of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia has unfolded in the past 16 months, prompting the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that anti-Semitism was his top priority in terms of threat to life.

After the Bondi attack, misinformation spread quickly online, some of it targeting immigrants and the Muslim community.

Police also said they had responded to reports on Monday morning of several pigs’ heads being left at a Muslim cemetery in southwestern Sydney.

“What one can expect when graffiti is painted all over Australia on synagogues, buildings, public buildings, calling for the death of Israel, death to the IDF and then cars are put on fire?” Mr Maimon said.

The father and son allegedly fired upon hundreds of people

‍at the festival during a 10-minute killing spree at one of Australia’s top tourist destinations, forcing people to flee and take shelter before both were shot by the police.

The police have not released the suspects’ names, but national broadcaster ABC and other media ​have identified them ​as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram.

There are 25 survivors receiving care in several Sydney hospitals, officials said.

Mr Ahmed al Ahmed

, a 43-year-old Muslim father of two who charged at one of the gunmen and seized his rifle, remains in a Sydney hospital with gunshot wounds.

Memorial of flowers

At Bondi, the beach was open on Dec 16 but was largely empty under overcast skies, as a growing memorial of flowers was established at the Bondi Pavilion, metres from the location of the shootings.

Bondi is Sydney’s best-known beach, located about 8km from the city centre, and draws hundreds of thousands of international tourists each year.

Ms Carolyn, 67, a Jewish woman who declined to give her surname, said: “This is my community. This is my history and I’m watching what’s occurred, and it’s as a tribute and respect to be here.

“Anti-Semitism has no place here. But what I’m seeing here is hope. I’m seeing people from most communities here doing that. They’re showing their respect, and it’s very important.”

Ms Olivia Robertson, 25, visited the memorial before work.

She said: “This is the country that our grandparents have come to for us to feel safe and to have opportunity.

“And now this has happened right here in our backyard. It’s pretty shocking.”

Tougher gun laws

Australia’s gun laws

, considered among the toughest in the world, are now being examined by the federal government, after it was found that Sajid Akram had six registered weapons. 

The police said he had held a gun licence since 2015. Two flags of militant group Islamic State were found in the ‍gunmen’s vehicle, ABC News reported, without citing a source.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Dec 16 said gun laws introduced by the previous conservative Liberal-National coalition government in 1996 ​following the Port Arthur massacre need to be re-examined.

“It is clear now that ⁠those laws need to be brought back up to date because it should never be the case that it is physically possible for two people to do what we saw on Sunday,” he said.

US Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff on social media said he was flying to Sydney to be with his son Leibel, who was wounded in the shooting.

“Sitting on a very long plane ride to Australia ​from Texas, while still grappling with the lives lost and communicating with the hospital as my son Leibel goes into multiple surgeries for his life-threatening injuries,” he wrote on X.

The 15 ​victims ranged from a rabbi who was a father of five, to a Holocaust survivor, to a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and media reports.

Two police officers remained in critical but stable condition in hospital, the New South Wales ‌police said on Dec 15.

The aunt of 10-year-old Matilda has spoken publicly of her family’s heartbreak, saying they were devastated by her death and struggling to come to terms with her family’s tragedy.

Ms Lina Chernykh told 7NEWS Australia that she was still in disbelief, saying she hoped the reports were not real.

“I am beyond belief that this happened. I look on the phone, and I am hoping it’s like a little big joke, not real,” Ms Chernykh said.

She said Matilda’s father, her brother, was overwhelmed by grief and unable to speak with anyone. 

Matilda was with her six-year-old sister, Summer, at the time of the attack.

“I hope she gets through ​this… and we all get through this,” Ms Chernykh said, adding that no family should have to endure such an experience.

“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian and our way of life,” said ‌Mr James Larsen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations.

“There is no place for this vile anti-Semitism in Australia, or anywhere in the world.” REUTERS, AFP