SYDNEY – On a picturesque summer evening, Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach was bustling with thousands of visitors reveling in the warmth and enjoying sunset swims in the glistening sea. Nearby, a Hanukkah celebration drew families of all backgrounds with attractions like face painting, ice cream, an outdoor movie, and a petting zoo.
The tranquility was shattered when chaos suddenly ensued.
The air was pierced by the sound of gunshots, sending people into a panic. Screams filled the air as beachgoers hurriedly sought refuge in nearby buildings, under tables, and down alleyways, leaving behind a trail of beach gear and footwear in their haste.
The shocking episode not only alarmed Australians due to its scale and the antisemitic motivations behind it but also because it took place at Bondi Beach, a cherished cultural and environmental symbol. This location has long epitomized Australia’s easygoing, friendly, and laid-back lifestyle.
Bondi Beach is synonymous with Australia’s relaxed culture. It is the setting of the popular reality TV show “Bondi Rescue,” which chronicles the adventures of local lifeguards. The beach also becomes a vibrant gathering place for international backpackers celebrating Christmas Day on its sands.
Bondi is Australia’s most famous beach. It’s the backdrop of a long-running reality television series about local lifeguards called “Bondi Rescue.” It’s also popular on Christmas day with foreign backpackers who flock to celebrate on the sand.
The beach is well known for its election day fashion too. By tradition, some Australians visiting the Bondi polling place to vote arrive clad only in tight-fitting swim briefs known as Budgy Smugglers, with news photographers jostling to capture the most irreverent shots.
Sunday night began in that spirit, with children enjoying rides and bubble blowing at the event, called Chanukah by the Sea. Then two men, a father and son, began indiscriminately gunning down men, women and children.
Those killed were aged between 10 and 87. One was a Holocaust survivor, the Australian newspaper reported.
The violence targeted Jewish families
Rebecca, 33, who declined to give her surname because she feared reprisals, was with her husband and two children when gunshots erupted. In tears the morning after the attack, she described how she shielded her 5-year-old son with her body under a table.
“I was just praying to God, ‘Please, don’t let us die. Please just keep my son safe,’” she told The Associated Press.
A man lying inches from her was shot in the chest. Rebecca’s 65-year-old mother in law used a piece of cardboard to apply pressure to his wound but the man died.
“One lady was to my side, and she was an elderly woman who couldn’t get down on the floor and they just shot her,” Rebecca said.
The shots went on and on. In footage supplied to AP by a member of the public who filmed it from their nearby hotel room, gunfire can be heard for at least 7 minutes, totaling dozens of blasts.
Guns are rare in Australia
The violence provoked terror at the beach, in part because most Australians don’t come into close contact with guns.
One beachgoer, Eleanor, who declined to give her surname, told the AP that she was walking at Bondi when the shots began and ran, fully clothed, into the ocean. On Monday, she plucked her sunglasses from a pile of abandoned belongings that lined the beach.
Bondi is an affluent suburb close to downtown Sydney and part of the Waverley local government area, which is the center of Sydney’s Jewish life. A knife attack last year at the nearby Bondi Junction shopping mall was initially feared to be an antisemitic attack, but authorities ruled out any political motive.
In that episode, law enforcement shot dead Joel Cauchi, who had a history of mental illness, after he stabbed to death six people and wounded another 12 at the complex on a busy Saturday in April.
Mass shootings in Australia are rare. The death toll from Sunday’s massacre is the highest since a mass shooting in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996, that made it all but impossible for Australians to obtain semiautomatic guns.
The authorities said Monday that they had recovered six guns that were legally owned by one of the shooters, a 50-year-old man who was shot dead. His 24-year-old son was being treated at a hospital Monday.
The men haven’t been named by officials. But their motive appeared clear, Australia’s leaders said: a targeted attack on Australian Jews during joyful celebrations that marked the beginning of Hanukkah.
“It’s the Jewish community. We’re all family we’re all one,” said Rebecca, who lives at Bondi with her family. “We’re such a strong, loving community.”
She felt abandoned by the authorities, who she said had “turned a blind eye” to rising antisemitism in Australia. What the attack says about the country and how Australia will be changed by it, was a central preoccupation for commentators and political leaders on Monday morning.
Australians celebrate stories of bravery
In the aftermath of the violence, however, Australians also hailed the bravery of those who ran into the fray to help. They included a fruit seller identified by local news outlets as Ahmed al Ahmed, who appeared to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him and then setting it on the ground.
The famous surf lifeguards of Bondi Beach are trained to save struggling swimmers. On Sunday they ran toward the gunfire, barefoot and clutching first aid kits as they sought to help the victims, Australian news outlets reported.
On a Monday morning, the beach would usually be teeming with people — jogging, swimming, surfing and promenading with takeaway coffees. Under a gray sky and intermittent drizzle, this Monday was eerily quiet.
Ashen-faced locals walked around in a daze, led by their dogs. Abandoned blankets, chairs and coolers were strewn across the grassy slope overlooking the sea, where moviegoers had been watching an outdoor cinema film when the gunshots began.
“It’s really sad because Bondi is really (as) much about community and about people getting together,” Heather Norland, who was walking back from dinner with her husband and children when they heard the gunshots, told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Janine Hall and her daughter on Monday laid flowers at a growing tribute spot overlooking the beach before heading down to the sand to swim.
“I hope it’s an aberration and not the start of a change,” she told the AP, referring to countries where mass shootings were common, such as the United States. “Everyone keep their heads and don’t fight hatred with more hatred, because that’s just a one-way ticket to nowhere, for everybody.”
Robert, who declined to give his last name, has lived in Bondi for 17 years.
“Australia is untouched by a lot of things,” he said Monday. “No one was expecting this.”
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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington and McGuirk from Melbourne.
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