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Eleven killed in shooting targeting Jewish community at Australia's Bondi Beach, police say

 

Darkness of antisemitism casts a shadow over the festival of light  

 

 

A Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, a Yom Kippur service at Heaton Park Synagogue, Simchat Torah in Israel on 7 October 2023.

Three Jewish festivals and three deadly attacks on Jewish people across different continents. The commonality: the desire to murder Jews. It is an attack that again reverberates across Jewish communities worldwide.

Hanukkah is the Jewish festival of lights, marking the miracle where the oil to light the Hanukkah lights that should have only lasted one night lasted for eight nights. It is a time of joy and celebration, a time of presents and of family, particularly loved by children. It is a time when the light is supposed to extinguish the darkness. But yet again, the darkness of antisemitism, of the hatred towards Jews and a murderous intent to kill them, whatever country they live in, overshadows the community’s festivals.

It will almost certainly be felt by every Jew across the world, who again today feel less safe. 

 

 

Explosive devices secured and being removed, police say 

 

 

We've just heard from New South Wales authorities on the incident at Bondi Beach - here's what we've learned:

  • The death toll has risen to 12, Premier Chris Minns said, adding that the attack was "designed to target Sydney's Jewish community"

  • Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon officially declared it as a "terrorist incident", adding that there were well over 1,000 people at the site, many celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah

  • Lanyon said 29 people have been taken to hospital, including a child - among them are two police officers who are in "serious, verging on critical" condition and both are in surgery

  • Of the two gunmen, one is dead and the other is "in a serious condition in hospital", Lanyon said 

     

    • Police found an "improvised explosive device in a car which is linked to the deceased offender" - a rescue bomb disposal unit is at the scene in Campbell Parade in Bondi

    • Minns paid tribute to a man filmed wrestling with one of the suspected attackers and taking his gun away 

       

      https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ckgk391yzm7t   

       

      More to come .....