{"id":203276,"date":"2025-12-21T08:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/203276\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T08:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T08:49:10","slug":"memorial-event-held-at-bondi-beach-one-week-after-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/203276\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial event held at Bondi Beach one week after attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

A minute’s silence has been observed at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, one week on from a gun attack which happened during a seaside Hanukkah celebration.<\/p>\n

The nation was marking a day of reflection to honour the 15 people killed and the dozens wounded in the attack by two gunmen at the beach.<\/p>\n

With security tight and flags at half-mast on government buildings, a minute of silence was held at 6.47pm local time, the time the attack began.<\/p>\n

Authorities invited Australians to light a candle, the start of the eighth and final day of the Jewish festival of lights, “as a quiet act of remembrance with family, friends or loved ones” of the victims of the attack, allegedly carried out by a father and son.<\/p>\n

The memorial event took place under a heavy police presence, including officers carrying long-arm firearms, police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"Mourners<\/p>\n

\"Mourners<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Albanese under pressure to curb antisemitism <\/p>\n

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a review of the country’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

He said that the review, to be led by a former chief of Australia’s spy agency, would probe whether federal police and intelligence agencies have the “right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe”.<\/p>\n

The attack exposed gaps in gun-license assessments and information-sharing between agencies that policymakers have said they want to plug.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese has announced a nationwide gun buyback, while gun safety experts say the nation’s gun laws, among the world’s toughest, are riddled with loopholes.<\/p>\n

The authorities are investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism targeting Jewish people. Patrols and policing across the country have been ramped up to prevent further antisemitic violence.<\/p>\n

Authorities believe the gunmen were inspired by militant Sunni Muslim group Islamic State.<\/p>\n

“The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation. Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond,” Mr Albanese said in a statement, adding that the review would conclude by the end of April.<\/p>\n

\"Australia's
\nAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives with his wife Jodie Haydon to attend the memorial at Bondi Beach<\/p>\n

\"Mourners<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his centre-left government has not done enough to curb a surge in antisemitism since the start of the war in Gaza, has vowed to strengthen hate laws in the wake of the attack.<\/p>\n

The Bondi Beach attack was the most serious of a string of antisemitic incidents in Australia, which have included attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars, since Israel launched the war in October 2023, in response to an attack by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Mr Albanese has also condemned anti-immigration rallies being held in Sydney and Melbourne.<\/p>\n

“There are organised rallies seeking to sow division in the aftermath of last Sunday’s antisemitic terrorist attack, and they have no place in Australia,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“They should not go ahead and people should not attend them.”<\/p>\n

Around 50 people were at the Sydney rally by mid-afternoon, according to a Reuters witness.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, the government of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, pledged to introduce a bill tomorrow to ban the display of symbols and flags of “terrorist organisations”, including those of Islamic State, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Authorities say Islamic State flags were found in the car the alleged attackers took to Bondi.<\/p>\n

Alleged gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene.<\/p>\n

His 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, who was also shot by police and emerged from a coma on Tuesday, has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism, according to police. He remains in custody in hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A minute’s silence has been observed at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, one week on from a gun attack which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-203276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}