By Christine Chen and Renju Jose
SYDNEY, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Israel’s ambassador to Australia has called for greater protection of Jewish people in Australia as dozens of people lined up on Tuesday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach to pay tribute to the 15 victims and those wounded in the weekend’s Hanukkah festival shootings.
The attack by two gunmen on Sunday was Australia’s worst mass shooting in nearly 30 years, and is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.
The death toll stands at 16 including one of the alleged gunmen, aged 50, who was shot by police. The man’s 24-year-old son and alleged accomplice was in critical condition in hospital, police said on Monday.
Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon urged the Australian government to take all required steps to secure the lives of Jews in Australia, with Sunday’s attack only the worst of a recent spate of antisemetic crimes in the city.
“Only Australians of Jewish faith are forced to worship their gods behind closed doors, CCTV, guards,” Maimon told reporters in Bondi, after laying flowers at the temporary memorial and paying his respects to the victims.
“My heart is torn apart … it is insane.”
A string of antisemitic incidents in Australia has unfolded in the past sixteen months, prompting the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declared that antisemitism was his top priority in terms of threat to life.
“What one can expect when graffiti is painted all over Australia on synagogues, buildings, public buildings, calling for the death of Israel, death to the IDF, and then cars are put on fire?” Maimon said.
The father and son allegedly fired upon hundreds of people at the festival during a roughly 10-minute killing spree at one of Australia’s top tourist destinations, forcing people to flee and take shelter before both were shot by police.
The federal government has launched a review of Australia’s gun laws, already among the toughest in the world, in the aftermath of the attack.
Police have not released the suspects’ names but national broadcaster ABC and other media have identified them as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram.
There are currently 25 survivors receiving care in several Sydney hospitals, officials said.
Ahmed al Ahmed, the 43-year-old Muslim father-of-two who charged at one of the gunmen and seized his rifle, remains in a Sydney hospital with gunshot wounds. He has been hailed as a hero around the world, including by U.S. President Donald Trump.
MEMORIAL OF FLOWERS
At Bondi, the beach was open on Tuesday but was largely empty under overcast skies, as a growing memorial of flowers was established at the Bondi Pavilion, metres from the location of the shootings.
Bondi is Sydney’s best-known beach, located about 8.2 km (5 miles) from the city centre, and draws hundreds of thousands of international tourists each year.
“This is my community. This is my history and I’m watching what’s occurred, and it’s as a tribute and respect to be here,” said Carolyn, 67, a Jewish woman who declined to give her surname.
“Antisemitism has no place here. But what I’m seeing here is hope. I’m seeing people from most communities here doing that. They’re showing their respect, and it’s very important.”
Olivia Robertson, 25, visited the memorial before work.
“This is the country that our grandparents have come to for us to feel safe and to have opportunity,” she said.
“And now this has happened right here in our backyard. It’s pretty shocking.”
TOUGHER GUN LAWS
Australia’s gun laws are now being examined by the federal government, after police said the older man had six registered weapons and had held a gun licence since 2015.
Two flags of militant group Islamic State were found in the gunmen’s vehicle, ABC News reported, without citing a source.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said gun laws introduced by the previous conservative Liberal-National coalition government in 1996 following the Port Arthur massacre needed to be re-examined.
“It is clear now that those laws need to be brought back up to date because it should never be the case that it is physically possible for two people to do what we saw on Sunday,” he told Channel Nine.
U.S. Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff wrote on social media that he was flying to Sydney to be with his son Leibel who was wounded in the shooting.
“Sitting on a very long plane ride to Australia from Texas, while still grappling with the lives lost and communicating with the hospital as my son Leibel goes into multiple surgeries for his life-threatening injuries,” he wrote on X.
The 15 victims ranged from a rabbi who was a father of five, to a Holocaust survivor, to a 10-year-old girl named Matilda Britvan, according to interviews, officials and media reports. Two police officers remained in critical but stable condition in hospital, New South Wales police said.
Matilda’s aunt has spoken publicly of her family’s heartbreak, saying they were devastated by her death.
“I am beyond belief that this happened. I look on the phone and I am hoping it’s like a little big joke, not real,” Lina Chernykh told 7NEWS Australia.
She said Matilda’s father, her brother, was overwhelmed by grief and unable to speak with anyone.
Matilda was with her 6-year-old sister, Summer, at the time of the attack.
“I hope she gets through this … and we all get through this,” Chernykh said.
(Reporting by Christine Chen and Renju Jose in Sydney. Writing by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Stephen Coates)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.