Australian authorities on Wednesday announced that they charged the gunman accused of targeting Jews at a recent Hanukkah celebration with committing a terrorist act.
The New South Wales Police revealed a total of 59 counts against Naveed Akram, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing wounding or grievous bodily harm to a person with intent to murder, and causing a public display of a prohibited terrorist organization’s symbol, among other charges.
Akram, 24, is accused of carrying out the anti-Jewish massacre at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, which killed 15 Jews and left at least 40 with injuries. His father, fatally shot by police, is accused of carrying out the attack alongside his son.
Among those who died was Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, who was killed while protecting his wife, Larisa, who was also a Holocaust survivor. Alex escaped the gas chambers by fleeing to Siberia, later spending decades in the Soviet Union before immigrating to Australia, where he attended Bondi Beach’s Hanukkah celebration for years.
“Dad died doing what he loved the most,” his daughter, Sabina, told the Washington Post. “Protecting my mother — he probably saved her life — and standing up and being a proud Jew: lighting the light, bringing the light to this world.”
Australian authorities on Tuesday said the “terrorist attack” was inspired by ISIS, revealing “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized.”
The radical Islamic organization has been linked to similar violence globally, including an attack on U.S. troops in Syria over the weekend, which killed two soldiers, and a New Year’s Day incident in New Orleans at the start of 2025, which killed 14 people.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Bondi Beach shooting was “motivated by Islamic State ideology.”
“This is a horrific act of antisemitism, a terrorist action designed to harm the Jewish community on what should be, of course, as the first day of Chanukah, a day of celebration,” he said in an interview with ABC Australia. “Chanukah, in part, is about the victory of light over dark. Well, this was a very dark day in Australian history, but together we will emerge into the light.”
