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At Least 15 People Killed in Mass Shooting at Hanukkah Event in Australia

HeadlineDec 15, 2025

In Sydney, Australia, a father and son killed at least 15 people in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach Sunday. Forty-two people were injured; at least 27 remain in the hospital. Victims included a 10-year-old girl, two rabbis and a Holocaust survivor who died while shielding his wife from bullets.

Police say the massacre was carried out by a 50-year-old father and his 24-year-old son. The father, Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police. The son, Naveed Akram, was arrested after being tackled by a fruit vendor named Ahmed al-Ahmed. Footage circulating widely showed Ahmed grabbing Akram as he fired on a crowd, before taking the gun from him and pointing it at him. The mass shooting was the deadliest attack in Australia since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre. This is Levi Wolff, the rabbi from the Central Synagogue at Bondi.

Rabbi Levi Wolff: “As a Jewish people, we will not be silenced. As a Jewish people, our light will not be dimmed, and the holiday of Hanukkah will remind us and the world that a little bit of light dispels a lot of darkness, and what we need to do is add in our light.”

We’ll go to Sydney, Australia, for more on this story later in the broadcast.

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