Australian social media users accused members of the Muslim community of celebrating the deadly Bondi Beach mass shooting that killed 15 people and injured many others.
Videos circulating on social media show fireworks displays; however, authorities confirmed that they were part of pre-scheduled Christmas festivities and not linked to the Bondi Beach massacre.
This clip represents one of several strands of misinformation that rapidly amplified online in the wake of Sunday’s tragic shooting at Australia’s iconic surf beach—a devastating incident that officials have classified as an antisemitic terrorist attack targeting a Jewish holiday gathering.
The gunmen struck an annual Hanukkah celebration that had attracted more than 1,000 attendees to the beach, resulting in 15 deaths and injuries to 42 others, according to authorities.
Shortly after the attack, the misleading video depicting fireworks illuminating the night sky began circulating widely, spreading by Monday morning to audiences in India, Britain, and the United States.
“(The people) we have let into our country are now setting off fireworks in Bankstown, celebrating the Bondi Massacre of our Jewish citizens,” said one Australian-based user, referring to a southwestern Sydney suburb.
Deploying dehumanising language in an X post that was reposted over 750 times, the user also asked: “Why aren’t the Police arresting (them)?”
Others on Facebook claimed the video showed “Islamists setting off fireworks in Sydney to celebrate the terrorist attack against the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach”.
But while there were indeed fireworks on Sunday evening, a local community organisation said the display was for Christmas celebrations.
“The fireworks were part of our annual Christmas Carols event; this event and the fireworks display were planned months in advance,” said the Rotary Club of Padstow, a suburb adjacent to Bankstown.
“They were not in any way related to the terrorist attack at Bondi,” the Rotary Club said, adding that the colourful display happens yearly.
The human filth we have let into our country are now setting off fireworks in Bankstown, celebrating the Bondi Massacre of our Jewish citizens.
Why aren't the Police arresting these bastards? pic.twitter.com/KlFTm3JzW9
— 🇦🇺 Cashy 🇦🇺 (@MaulingWallSt) December 14, 2025
Bondi Massacre
A father-and-son duo unleashed a ghastly shooting spree at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and wounding dozens more, in what authorities slammed as a brazen act of antisemitic terrorism.
The pair opened fire on throngs of revelers gathered along the famed beachfront to mark the start of Hanukkah on Sunday evening, triggering widespread panic as families and tourists fled the popular seaside hotspot.
A 10-year-old girl was among those tragically killed in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly three decades—surpassing recent incidents and evoking memories of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre—while 42 others were hospitalized with gunshot wounds and related injuries.
Investigators continue to probe the motives behind the attack, though officials have emphasized that it was deliberately planned to instill fear within the country’s Jewish community.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the father and son had possible connections to the Islamic State group, amid emerging details of prior intelligence assessments.
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism, an act of terrorism on our shores,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, before laying flowers at the Bondi Pavilion.
Armed with long-barreled guns, the attackers sprayed bullets for 10 minutes before police shot and killed the 50-year-old father.
Hours after the shooting, police found a homemade bomb in a car parked close to the beach, saying the “improvised explosive device” had likely been planted by the pair.
Rabbi Mendel Kastel said his brother-in-law was among the dead. “It’s unbelievable that this has happened here in Australia, but we need to hold strong. This is not the Australia that we know. This is not the Australia that we want.”
Police have so far evaded questions about the attackers’ religion or ideological motivations, but it appears the father-son duo were of Pakistani origin.
Footage showed one man — identified by local media as fruit seller Ahmed al Ahmed — grabbing one of the gunmen as he fired. The 43-year-old snatched the attacker’s gun before pointing the weapon at him as he backed away.
Meanwhile, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu accused Canberra of “pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism” in the months leading up to the shooting. US President Donald Trump said it was a “purely antisemitic attack”.
Back in August 2025, Australia kicked out Iran’s ambassador and several other diplomats after accusing Tehran of masterminding antisemitic attacks on home soil.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said ASIO intelligence showed Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) were behind two big arson attacks in 2024.
One was the October 20 firebombing of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, a kosher cafe in Bondi’s Jewish community that had been open for more than 50 years.
The other was the December 6 blaze that gutted the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne – a place built by Holocaust survivors back in the 1960s.ASIO believes Iran used local criminals and organised crime gangs as proxies to hide its role.
Officials think Tehran was probably linked to other antisemitic incidents too, as attacks spiked after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault on Israel and the war that followed.
The accusations came during growing worries about foreign meddling and a surge in hate crimes against Jews in Australia. Canberra shut its embassy in Tehran for safety reasons and moved to list the IRGC as a terrorist group.
Iran has long backed Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. Still, its foreign ministry was quick to condemn Sunday’s shooting at the Sydney Hanukkah event, calling it a “violent attack against civilians”.
Spokesman Esmail Baghaei posted on X that “terror violence and mass killing shall be condemned, wherever they’re committed, as unlawful and criminal”. His statement made no mention of the Jewish victims or the antisemitic motive.
By ET Online Desk & Agence France-Presse
