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

A gunman who opened fire during Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach has been named Naveed Akram.

A driver’s license found at the scene gave his address as Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s southwest, where police conducted a raid on Sunday night. Unconfirmed reports suggest Akram is from Lahore, Pakistan.

The 24-year-old suspect was shot dead by police. A second alleged attacker remains in custody and authorities are continuing to search for reports of a possible third offender.

Social media posts from an Islamic center in Australia showed Akram completed religious studies in 2022, raising questions about possible radicalization and extremist networks in the country. Adam Ismail, the director of Murad Islamic College, where Aklan attended, declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph.

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

Video from the scene showed two men dressed in black shooting at the beach from a bridge above a nearby parking lot at around 6:40pm on Sunday. Police maintained a heavy presence at the scene, with detective teams moving in and out as ambulances arrived.

Image source: Sky News

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanning urged calm and said investigators were working through a multifaceted inquiry.

Israeli authorities said they were investigating responsibility for the attack amid concerns it may have been planned by a foreign country or armed group. The shooting comes amid rising tensions between Australia and Iran, following a series of suspected Iranian attacks on Jewish targets in the country.

Australian officials have not publicly confirmed any foreign involvement. However, Israeli officials said that if state actors were involved, Iran was the main suspect, while possible links to groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Lashkar-e-Taiba were also being reviewed, according to Israeli media reports.

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“In recent months, Iran has stepped up its activities in planning attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,” a senior Israeli security official told Israel Hayom, adding that investigators believe the “direction and infrastructure” of the Bondi Beach attack originated in Tehran.

Citing Israeli intelligence sources, the newspaper said there had been a “significant increase” in activity by Iran and its allies in recent months. Another Israeli official said Australia was among the affected countries, noting that the Australian government had previously taken action against the Iranian embassy after receiving specific intelligence warnings.

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

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the shooting as a “brutal attack on the Jewish people.”

“At this very moment, our brothers and sisters in Sydney were attacked by vicious terrorists,” he said. “We are devastated and bereaved.”

Meanwhile, some supporters of the Iranian regime celebrated the attack on social media. One post praised Akram as “the hardest-working member of the 2000s so far.”

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

Australia last month officially designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expelled the Iranian ambassador in August and suspended the operations of the Australian 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 “ignited and fanned the flames of anti-Semitism in Australia”.

He said Tehran had carried out at least two arson attacks in the past year, including those targeting a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney kosher restaurant.

“Iran and its proxies are directing Australians to carry out these criminal acts through a series of cut-offs,” Burgess said.

Lewis’s Continental Kitchen, a kosher cafe in Bondi, was hit by an arson attack in October last year. The Adas Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, southeast of Melbourne, was also attacked in December. No injuries were reported.

Albanese said the Iranian government was likely to launch further attacks against Jewish targets.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign country on Australian soil,” he said. “They sought to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our communities.”

Image source: Instagram/mian.ores – X

The expulsion of Ambassador Ahmed Sadeghi marks the worst diplomatic crisis between Australia and Iran since they established diplomatic ties in 1968. Australia also ordered embassy staff to leave Iran and advised citizens to leave if possible.

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

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar urged Canberra to take action in a phone call with his Australian counterpart, Wong Yin-hyun, to deal with what he said was a rise in anti-Semitism.

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

Iran’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the “violent attack” in Sydney.

“We condemn the violent attacks in Sydney, Australia. We reject and condemn terror and killings wherever they occur,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said on X.

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