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Australian authorities said Tuesday that a father and son who opened fire on families during a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach had their vehicle packed with improvised explosive devices and homemade ISIS flags, deepening fears that the massacre was part of a wider attack plot than initially believed.
During a press conference, investigators called the father-son gunmen, aged 24 and 50, “cowards” who preyed on Jewish Australians “in broad daylight”. Fifteen people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in the shooting, which police are now formally calling an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack.
New South Wales Police confirmed that the young attacker’s vehicle contained IEDs and two homemade ISIS flags, evidence officials said pointed to direct extremist inspiration and a clear intention to carry out a large, coordinated attack. Forensic teams are still conducting ballistic and chemical examinations of the items.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Chrissie Barrett said, “This was a barbaric attack against Jewish Australians.” “They were hunted in broad daylight.”
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon stand behind NSW Premier Chris Minns speaking during a press conference at NSW Police headquarters, following a deadly shooting incident during a Jewish holiday celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on December 16, 2025. (Reuters/Holly Adams)
Officials said they were still working to determine whether the devices were functional or intended for secondary targets.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Chrissie Barrett, NSW Premier Chris Minns, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, Police and Counter-Terrorism Minister Yasmin Catley attend a press conference during a visit to NSW Police Headquarters following a fatal shooting incident during a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on December 16, 2025. (Reuters/Holly Adams)
New South Wales state Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the suspects had traveled to the Philippines last month. Lanyon said his reasons for traveling and where he went in the Philippines would be investigated by investigators.
The region has long been a stronghold of ISIS-linked networks. Groups of Muslim separatist militants, including Abu Sayyaf, in the southern Philippines once expressed support for ISIS and have in the past hosted small numbers of foreign terrorist fighters from Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
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However, decades of military offensives have significantly weakened Abu Sayyaf and other such armed groups, and Philippine military and police officials say there have been no recent signs of any foreign militants in the south of the country.
A woman kneels and prays at a flower memorial for shooting victims outside Bondi Pavilion on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after the shootings. (Mark Baker/AP Photo)
Officials said there was currently no evidence that additional attackers or facilitators were involved in Sunday’s massacre, but officials cautioned that assessment could change as investigators review digital devices, travel records and thousands of seized documents.
On Tuesday, for the first time, authorities confirmed their belief about the suspects’ ideology.
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More than two dozen people aged between 10 and 87 are still being treated in hospitals after Sunday’s massacre. Ten of them are in critical condition, including three children’s hospital patients.
The injured included Syrian-born fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, 42, who was captured on video tackling and disarming an attacker, before he pointed his weapon at him and then threw him to the ground. He was scheduled to undergo surgery Wednesday for shotgun wounds to his left shoulder and upper body.
People gather outside the Bondi Pavilion on Sydney’s Bondi Beach to pay tribute to the shooting victims on Monday, December 15, 2025, a day after the shootings. (Mark Baker/AP Photo)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had previously met Ahmed, hailed him as “a true Australian hero”.
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Albanese said, “We are a brave country. Ahmed Al Ahmed represents the best of our country. We will not let this country be divided. That’s what terrorists want. We will be united. We will embrace each other, and we will get through this.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attend a press conference at NSW Police headquarters, following a deadly shooting incident during a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach on December 16, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Reuters/Holly Adams)
The elderly gunman was shot dead on Tuesday, while his son was also being treated in the hospital.
Albanese and leaders of some of Australia’s states have promised to tighten the country’s already strict gun laws in what would be the most sweeping reforms since a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Mass shootings have become rare in Australia.
As public questions and anger grew on the third day after the attack, authorities released more information on how the suspects were able to plan and execute it and whether Australian Jews were adequately protected from rising anti-Semitism.
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Albanese announced plans to further restrict access to guns after it emerged that the older suspect had legally stockpiled his arsenal of six weapons.
“The suspected killer, from the way he allegedly coordinated his attack, appeared to have no regard for the age or ability of his victims,” Barrett said. “It appears that the alleged killers were only interested in finding a death toll.”
