Sydney Hanukkah horror at Bondi Beach sparks criticism of post–Oct 7 extremism

Sunday’s lethal terrorist assault on Australian Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney was one thing the nation’s small however historic neighborhood has feared since a wave of anti-Semitic incidents started after Hamas’ October 7, 2023 bloodbath in Israel.

Whereas Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the assault – calling it “a focused assault on Jewish Australians on the primary day of Hanukkah” – his critics say his Labor authorities has did not adequately reply to the alarming rise in anti-Semitic incidents throughout the nation.

Insurgent Information Australia’s Avi Yemini, who has documented the assaults on the neighborhood, informed Fox Information Digital that simply days after the Hamas assault on October 7, 2023, “gangs of Islamic extremists had been already overtly looking Jews right here in Australia, chanting ‘the place are the Jews’ exterior the Sydney Opera Home. Since then, synagogues and childcare facilities have been bombed and repeated warnings have been ignored. With out significant authorities motion to deal with the issue, tonight’s horrific assault in Bondi was tragic inevitable and doubtless will not be the final.”

ISRAELI OFFICIALS BLAME AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT AFTER BONDI BEACH SHOOTING: ‘NUMEROUS WARNING SIGNS’

Anti-Semitic graffiti in a Jewish neighborhood in Melbourne, Australia. (Government Council of Australian Jewry)

He mentioned: “The Australian Labor authorities is unwilling to take decisive motion, partly due to its political dependence on the voices of the Muslim neighborhood. Because of this, many Australian Jews at the moment are confronted with a devastating wake-up name that this nation is now not as protected for us because it as soon as was. I consider many will now severely contemplate a transfer to Israel.”

AUSTRALIA’S JEWISH COMMUNITY ALARMED BY INCREASING ANTISEMITISM: ‘FEAR AND ANXIETY’

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, heart, gestures as he makes his well beyond a crowd after visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, December 10, 2024. (Joel Carrett/AAP Picture by way of AP)

Including to the anger, Australian Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was criticized for failing to notice this in an earlier assertion on X that the lethal assault focused Jewish Australians.

After the assault, a reporter confronted Albanians with issues about his authorities’s response to anti-Semitism, citing his authorities’s recognition of a Palestinian state, labor ministers attacking the Israeli authorities and refusing to go to the websites of the October 7 massacres, and the simultaneous appointment of particular envoys on Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The reporter requested the Albanian whether or not his authorities had taken anti-Semitism severely.

ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACKERS DESTROY SYNAGOGUE, ISRAELI RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA

Synagogue members accumulate objects from the Adass Israel Synagogue on December 6, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. An arson assault at Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue compelled congregants to flee as flames engulfed the constructing early Friday morning. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the incident as an anti-Semitic act and harassed that such violence at a spot of worship is unacceptable in Australia. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Photographs)

“Sure, we took it severely,” Albanese replied. “And we have now continued to behave. Now we have continued to work with leaders of the Jewish neighborhood. Now we have continued to comply with all recommendation from the safety companies to take particular measures, and we’ll proceed to take action.”

Albanese’s press workplace didn’t reply to Fox Information Digital’s request for touch upon frustrations over the prime minister’s response to the mass capturing.

The protection vest of an anti-Israel protester throughout a march in opposition to the Jewish state on the Sydney Harbor Bridge in Australia. August 2025. (Ayush Kumar/SOPA Photographs/LightRocket by way of Getty Photographs)

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) just lately documented 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents throughout Australia between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025, “along with the two,062 incidents throughout the nation the 12 months earlier than.”

It additionally famous that “anti-Semitic incidents in Australia stay at traditionally excessive ranges, nearly 5 occasions the common annual quantity earlier than October 7, 2023… Whereas there was a marginal decline from final 12 months’s document, probably the most critical classes of incidents, together with arsons in opposition to synagogues, kindergartens and different Jewish establishments, are larger than in any earlier 12 months on document.”

A number of the extra stunning incidents which have affected Australia’s Jewish neighborhood since October 7, 2023, up till Sunday’s terror assault, embrace:

Melbourne

Masked people set fireplace to Ripponlea’s Adass Israel Synagogue as congregants mentioned morning prayers. The hearth induced intensive harm and injured one worshiper.

AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE WORKERS THREATEN ISRAELI MAN, CLAIMS TO HAVE KILLED JEWS IN THEIR CARE ON CAMERA

Sydney:

Sydney’s Allawah Synagogue was tagged with swastika graffiti. The following day, the Newtown Synagogue, additionally in Sydney, was equally defaced. The week earlier than, a automotive in Sydney was spray-painted with an anti-Semitic phrase.

An arson assault induced intensive property harm to a childcare heart close to a Jewish faculty and synagogue in Sydney. Anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered inside.

A automotive was set on fireplace in a Jewish neighborhood in Sydney, and as many as seven houses within the space had been vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Two well being employees in Sydney who spoke to an Israeli man on the social platform Chatrouletka mentioned they might deny remedy to Israeli sufferers and had beforehand killed Israeli sufferers.

Police escort anti-Israel protesters exterior an Israeli Miznon restaurant on {Hardware} Lane in Melbourne, Friday, July 4, 2025. Households had been terrified as certainly one of Australia’s oldest synagogues was focused by arsonists and protesters shouted chants exterior an Israeli restaurant. (AAP Picture/Josh Stanyer/by way of Reuters)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s Overseas Minister, expressed his unhappiness by phone to his Australian counterpart Penny Wong. On Sunday on

Populist Australian Senator Pauline Hanson mentioned on Hanson mentioned the Jewish neighborhood in Australia has “the identical proper to stay in peace and concord as all Australians,” and referred to as on authorities to “be sincere in revealing the identities and backgrounds of those killers.”

The Related Press contributed to this report.