15 people killed in terror attack in Australia's Bondi Beach in Sydney.

 

One of the attackers, Naveed Akram. The Telegraph.

 15 people were killed in a major terror attack at Bondi Beach in Australia. The Telegraph. Two men armed with bolt action hunting rifles opened fire on a Jewish event called "Chanukah on the Beach". The suspects were a father and son team, originally from Pakistan. A brave civilian, a 43 year old Muslim named Ahmed Al-Ahmed was able to wrestle the rifle away from one of the shooters, but was shot for his trouble. Police were able to kill the older shooter and wound and capture the younger one. The attack raises questions about the effectiveness of gun control in Australia, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world. 

This guy is a hero. Give him a medal. Unbelievably horrific scenes in Australia. It’s hard to fathom. pic.twitter.com/awKXKWPpAI

— Jase Kemp (@jasetaylorkemp) December 14, 2025

The BBC has live updates on this incident.  

My Comment:

This is a terrorist incident to be sure. The men attacked a Jewish gathering and they were Muslims from Pakistan. The attack was an effective one and one of the worst in Australian history. It's also another example of Jews being targeted directly for an attack like this. 

Obviously, the actions of Ahmed al-Ahmed are heroic and certainly should be praised. The man bravely tackled an armed man and was able to disarm him. He got shot for his trouble as the attacker was not alone. But the attacker was not able to recover his weapon and was no longer able to contribute to the attack. That's heroism of course. 

Many folks are wondering why he didn't finish off the attack when he had him dead to rights. Supposedly his family was quoted saying that he "didn't want to be a killer" but I am guessing it had more to do with the fact that he didn't know anything about guns. He might not have known how to charge the rifle and it's very possible that the weapon was empty when he recovered it. He also came under fire from the 2nd attacker.

Others are wondering if Australia's draconian gun and self defense laws may have played a factor in him not shooting, assuming he even knew how. This seems likely to me as from what I understand if he had killed the attacker he disarmed, he would have likely been charged with Murder. The fact that the 2nd shooter was actively shooting at him wouldn't have mattered, the 1st one was disarmed and retreating, and I wouldn't trust an Australian jury to do the right thing and let him go for heroic actions. It's a moot point though as he was unwilling or unable to fire,

I also think this is a strong argument that gun control doesn't work. Folks always say that semi-auto weapons are more "dangerous" and if folks were restricted to bolt action weapons they wouldn't be able to get double digit casualties. 

This incident shows how that is just nonsense. These attackers were able to kill 15 people with bolt action hunting rifles and were able to wound 40 more. Indeed, the heavier rounds (I am assuming these were .30 caliber rifles or their equivalent) and slower aimed shots may have lead to dramatically more deaths than if the attackers had semiautos with intermediate rifle rounds. 

Finally, I have to say that this goes to show that just because the Israel-Gaza war is over, it does not mean that the threat from terrorism has been reduced. Indeed, this wasn't even the only incident today, a major plot targeting a Christmas Market in Bavaria was disrupted and foiled today. Islamic terrorism is still around and I fully expect more attacks like this. 

Was this one part of a larger plot? I am not sure. This attack was more sophisticated than most, but that might just be because both shooters were pretty obviously competent with their weapons. I would say that this wasn't a spur of the moment "lone wolf" attack, but rather a planned attack. It does seem likely that no links to terror groups will be found, and no groups have claimed these guys as one of their own. Israel was quick to blame Iran, but that seems nonsensical to me. Given the current sad state of ISIS and al-Qaeda I am guessing no actual links will be found.