Australian authorities have identified one of the gunmen who opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, as new details emerge about the targeted attack that authorities are treating as terrorism.

Eleven people were killed and 29 others were wounded in the shooting, which targeted the Jewish community, police said. The death toll rose to 12 after one of the alleged attackers was killed by police. A second suspect remains hospitalized in critical condition, and investigators are continuing searches amid reports of a possible third attacker, The Telegraph reports. 

Video footage shared by Sky News shows two men dressed in black firing rifles toward the beach from a pedestrian bridge above a nearby parking area at about 6:40 p.m. Sunday.

In the footage, one of the gunmen is tackled by a bystander before retreating to retrieve another weapon and resuming fire.

The bystander, later identified by 7 News Australia as 43-year-old Ahmed Al-Ahmed, is a local shop owner and father-of-two who decided to step in and grab the rifle from one of the gunmen.                      

Police later confirmed they recovered an improvised explosive device from a vehicle linked to the deceased suspect. Authorities also said they had previously been “aware” of one of the offenders, though they did not provide further details.

The attackers targeted an event marking the start of Hanukkah that drew families and children to the popular beach.

Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff, who was helping run the event, was wounded in the shooting, according to his father, Yossi Lazaroff, the campus rabbi at Texas A&M University. In a social media post, he asked people to pray for his son.

"Please say Psalms 20 & 21 for my son, Rabbi Leibel Lazaroff, who was shot in a terrorist attack at a Chanukah event he was running for Chabad of Bondi in Sydney, Australia. The Chabad Rabbi he was working with Rabbi Eli Schlanger was killed. Praying for all the victims and their families," he shared on X. 

A Holocaust survivor was also among the dead. Larisa Kleytman said her husband, Alex, was shot in the back of the head while trying to shield her during the attack. The couple had immigrated to Australia from Ukraine and were attending the celebration together.

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it “an act of evil antisemitism” and said it had “struck the heart of our nation," in an official statement shared on X. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the violence, saying in part, "Antisemitism has no place in this world. Our prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack, the Jewish community, and the people of Australia."

This is a fast-developing story and some details may change as the situation develops. 

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/bondi-beach-massacre-11-killed-29-injured-in-targeted-attack.html