Bondi Beach gunman named as 24-year-old man living in Sydney

One of the gunmen who opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach has been named as Naveed Akram.

A driver’s license found at the scene shows Bonnyrigg’s address in Sydney’s south-west, where police raided on Sunday night.

The 24-year-old suspect, who was shot by police, was a bricklayer who had recently been laid off.

The suburb of Bonnyrigg is home to a large migrant population, with significant Chinese and Vietnamese communities.

A second alleged attacker remains in custody as authorities continue to search for information about a possible third offender.

Social media posts from an Islamic center in Australia show Akram completed religious studies in 2022, raising questions about possible radicalization and extremist networks operating in the country. Adam Ismail, head of Al-Murad Islamic Institute, where Akram studied, declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph.

The attack is being treated as a terrorist incident and is one of the deadliest acts of anti-Semitic violence in Australian history.

Video footage from the scene shows two men dressed in black rifles shooting towards the beach from a bridge above a nearby car park at around 6.40pm on Sunday. Police maintained a heavy presence at the scene, with teams of detectives moving in and out under guard as ambulances arrived.

Credit: Sky News

New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon appealed for calm, saying investigators were working on multiple lines of inquiry.

Israeli authorities said they were examining responsibility for the attack amid concerns it could have been orchestrated by a foreign state or militant organizations. The shooting comes amid rising tensions between Australia and Iran following a series of suspected Iranian-directed attacks on Jewish targets in the country.

Australian officials have not publicly confirmed any foreign involvement. However, Israeli officials have cited Iran as the prime suspect if a state actor was involved, while examining possible links to groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to Israeli media reports.

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A senior Israeli security official told Israel Hayom that there has been “increased activity by Iran in recent months to orchestrate attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,” adding that investigators believe the “direction and infrastructure” of the Bondi Beach attack came from Tehran.

An Israeli intelligence source cited by the paper said activity by Iran and its allies had “increased considerably” in recent months. Another Israeli official said Australia was among the affected countries, noting that the Australian government had previously taken action against Iran’s embassy following specific intelligence warnings.

“There is no doubt that the direction and infrastructure of the attack originated in Tehran,” the official said.

Isaac Herzog, Israel’s president, condemned the shooting as a “cruel attack on the Jews”.

“At this very moment, our sisters and brothers in Sydney have been attacked by vile terrorists,” he said. “We are totally shocked and grieving.”

Meanwhile, some supporters of the Iranian regime celebrated the attack on social media. One post praised Akram as “the most persistent member of the 2000s generation yet”.

Iranian state media reported the shooting using derogatory language, with the Tasnim news agency describing the victims in terms similar to those used during recent hostilities between Israel and Iran.

Australia officially listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization last month. Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, expelled Iran’s ambassador in August and suspended the operations of Australia’s embassy in Tehran, accusing the Islamic Republic of recruiting criminals to carry out anti-Semitic attacks on Australian soil.

Australia’s spy chief, Mike Burgess, said in August that Iran had “lit the matches and fanned the flames” of anti-Semitism in Australia.

He said Tehran had led at least two arson attacks in the past year, including incidents targeting a synagogue in Melbourne and a Jewish restaurant in Sydney.

“Iran and its proxies are directing, through a series of cutouts, people in Australia to commit these crimes,” Burgess said.

Lewis’s Continental Kitchen, a kosher cafe in Bondi, was targeted in an arson attack last October. An Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, in Melbourne’s south-east, was also attacked in December. No injuries were reported.

Albanese said it was likely that the Iranian government had directed attacks on Jewish targets before.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” he said. “There have been attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

Credit: Instagram/mian.ores – X

The expulsion of Ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi marked the worst diplomatic crisis between Australia and Iran since the two countries established relations in 1968. Australia also ordered embassy staff to leave Iran and advised citizens to leave if possible.

An Israeli citizen was among those killed in the Bondi Beach attack, Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed.

Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli foreign minister, called on Canberra to act against what he described as a rise in anti-Semitism during a phone call with his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong.

“Since October 7, there has been an increase in anti-Semitism in Australia,” he said, calling on the government to take stronger action against incitement to violence.

Iran’s foreign ministry denounced a “violent attack” in Sydney on Sunday.

“We condemn the violent attack in Sydney, Australia. Terror and the killing of human beings, wherever they are committed, are rejected and condemned,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei told X.

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