SYDNEY — A suspect in the Bondi Beach massacre, which shook Sydney, has been charged with a staggering 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder. This development comes as the city begins to mourn the lives lost in the tragic event with a series of funerals.
On Sunday, two gunmen unleashed a deadly attack on a group celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, resulting in the deaths of 15 individuals. The assailants targeted the Jewish community in an appalling act of antisemitic violence. Meanwhile, more than 20 people who were injured in the attack are still receiving medical treatment in hospitals. The victims who have been identified so far were all members of the Jewish community.
This horrific incident has sparked widespread discussions across Australia, prompting the nation to confront critical issues surrounding antisemitism, gun control, and the adequacy of police measures at events where threats are anticipated.
Accused shooter charged in hospital
Naveed Akram, aged 24, has been charged following his emergence from a coma in a Sydney hospital. He was hospitalized after being shot by police during the incident at Bondi, which also resulted in the death of his father, Sajid Akram, 50, at the scene.
The police have charged Akram with one count of murder for each victim and an additional charge of committing a terrorist act.
Furthermore, Akram faces 40 charges of intending to murder those who were injured, along with accusations of placing an explosive device near a building with the intent to cause harm.
Police said the Akrams’ car, which was found at the crime scene, contained improvised explosive devices.
Akram’s lawyer did not enter pleas and did not request his client’s release on bail during a video court appearance from his hospital bed, a court statement said.
Akram is being represented by Legal Aid NSW, which has a policy of refusing media comment on behalf of clients. He is expected to remain under police guard in hospital until he is well enough to be transferred to a prison.
A father of 5 who ministered in prisons is buried
Families from Sydney’s close-knit Jewish community gathered, one after another, to begin to bury their dead. The victims of the attack ranged in age from a 10-year-old girl to an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Jews are usually buried within 24 hours from their deaths, but funerals have been delayed by coroner’s investigations.
The first farewelled was Eli Schlanger, 41, a husband and father of five who served as the assistant rabbi at Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi and organized Sunday’s Chanukah by the Sea event where the attack unfolded. The London-born Schlanger also served as chaplain in prisons across New South Wales state and in a Sydney hospital.
“After what happened, my biggest regret was – apart from, obviously, the obvious – I could have done more to tell Eli more often how much we love him, how much I love him, how much we appreciate everything that he does and how proud we are of him,” said Schlanger’s father-in-law, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, who sometimes spoke through tears.
“I hope he knew that. I’m sure he knew it,” Ulman said. “But I think it should’ve been said more often.”
One mourner, Dmitry Chlafma, said as he left the service that Schlanger was his longtime rabbi.
“You can tell by the amount of people that are here how much he meant to the community,” Chlafma said. “He was warm, happy, generous, one of a kind.”
Outside the funeral, not far from the site of the attack, the mood was hushed and grim, with a heavy police presence.
Authorities are probing a suspected connection to the Islamic State group
Authorities believe that the shooting was “a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State,” Australia’s federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Wednesday.
The Islamic State group is a scattered and considerably weaker group since a 2019 U.S.-led military intervention drove it out of territory it had seized in Iraq and Syria, but its cells remain active and it has inspired a number of independent attacks including in western countries.
Authorties are also examining a trip the suspects made to the Philippines in November.
Groups of Muslim separatist militants, including Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, once expressed support for IS and have hosted small numbers of foreign militants from Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the past. Philippine military and police officials say there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants in the country’s south.
Leader pledges action on guns and antisemitism
The news that the suspects were apparently inspired by the Islamic State group provoked more questions about whether Australia’s government had done enough to stem hate-fueled crimes, especially directed at Jews. In Sydney and Melbourne, where 85% of Australia’s Jewish population lives, a wave of antisemitic attacks has been recorded in the past year.
After Jewish leaders and survivors of Sunday’s attack lambasted the government for not heeding their warnings of violence, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese vowed Wednesday to take whatever government action was needed to stamp out antisemitism.
Albanese and the leaders of some Australian states have pledged to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings in Australia have since been rare.
Albanese has announced plans to further restrict access to guns, in part because it emerged the older suspect had amassed six weapons legally. Proposed measures include restricting gun ownership to Australian citizens and limiting the number of weapons a person can hold.
Australians come together to grieve
Meanwhile, Australians seeking ways to make sense of the horror settled on practical acts. Hours-long lines were reported at blood donation sites and at dawn on Wednesday, hundreds of swimmers formed a circle on the sand, where they held a minute’s silence. Then they ran into the sea.
Not far away, part of the beach remained behind police tape as the investigation into the massacre continued, shoes and towels abandoned as people fled still strewn across the sand.
One event that would return to Bondi was the Hanukkah celebration the gunmen targeted, which has run for 31 years, Ulman said. It would be in defiance of the attackers’ wish to make people feel like it was dangerous to live as Jews, he added.
“Eli lived and breathed this idea that we can never ever allow them not only to succeed, but anytime that they try something we become greater and stronger,” he said.
“We’re going to show the world that the Jewish people are unbeatable.”
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