Could Australia have prevented Bondi Beach attack? The missed warning signs and more

Could the Bondi Beach attack have been prevented?

That’s what many are asking after over a dozen people were killed and several injured by a father and son duo in Australia. The incident, which occurred on Sunday as celebrations began for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, was Australia’s deadliest mass shooting in decades.

A 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and two rabbis were among those killed in the attack. Now, questions are being asked about whether this was a failure by intelligence agencies and if authorities could have done more to prevent the horrific attack.

Let’s take a closer look.

Gunman links to terror cell overlooked?

According to reports, one of the gunmen had come under the scanner of authorities in Australia over half a dozen years ago. The father and son duo were identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and 24-year-old Naveed Akram. While Sajid was killed while exchanging gunfire with officers, Naveed was apprehended by the police and taken to hospital, where he remains under guard.

The gunman came under the scanner of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the country’s domestic intelligence agency, for his links with a Sydney-based terror cell of the Islamic State. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess told ABC that the agency knew about one of the gunmen, though he did not specify which. “One of these individuals was known to us, but not in an immediate-threat perspective, so we need to look into what happened here,” Burgess said.

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However, a senior Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ASIO began keeping tabs on Naveed around six years ago after police busted an Islamic State terror attack. The JCTT is made up of ASIO, NSW Police, the Australian Federal Police and the NSW Crime Commission.

ABC has reported that authorities began keeping tabs on Naveed after Islamic State Sydney cell leader Isaac El Matari was arrested in 2019. Matari, who declared himself the Australian commander of Islamic State, is currently serving a seven-year jail sentence. Matari was convicted of preparing an Islamic State insurgency in Australia. The official added that Naveed Akram is closely connected to Matari.

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Matari’s Islamic State cell comprised other Sydney men who have since been convicted of terrorist offences – all of whom are reportedly close to Naveed. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed ASIO first became aware of Naveed in 2019 and probed him for six months. However, it was determined that he did not pose an ongoing threat to Australia. This is in stark contrast to NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, who on Monday said there was “little knowledge of either of these men by the authorities” prior to the attack.

However, it must be pointed out that intelligence agencies could have hundreds under surveillance at the same time. Simply ‘being known’ to authorities is not enough for them to take concrete action. Intelligence agencies conduct a risk assessment to determine the likelihood of an individual or individuals actually carrying out an attack.

As Greg Barton, a counter-terrorism expert at Deakin University, told _The Age_: “If [Naveed Akram] was of interest in 2019, people will be asking whether the authorities missed something … People will be asking whether enough was done to monitor him. The authorities themselves will be asking that.”

“Just because you find someone with links and connections doesn’t mean you have the basis for charging or arresting them,” Barton pointed out.

Did police freeze? Was there a warning from Mossad?

“Twenty minutes [later], there were four policemen. Nobody returned fire. Nothing. Like they froze. I don’t understand why,” eyewitness Shmulik Scuri was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.

Grace Matthews told the ABC that a friend saw police were “very underprepared”.

“There’s a police station less than a block from where the shooting was happening… It’s beyond my understanding as to why it took so long to handle,” Matthews, hiding in a church nearby, said.

Israeli security sources have claimed that its intelligence agency Mossad warned Australia multiple times over threats to the Jewish community.

However, the New South Wales Police chief has said there was no input about a specific threat to this event at the beach.

“If the police had had intelligence that there was a risk to the community or to this event, we would’ve taken significant action,” said Commissioner Mal Lanyon.

Anti-Semitism on the rise

Albanese on Sunday called the attack “an act of evil”.

“There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear, we will eradicate it,” he said.

However, some are criticising Albanese for failing to deal with what they say is a rising tide of anti-Semitism in Australia since the outbreak of Israel’s war in Gaza in 2023.

According to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, there have been 1,654 reports of anti-Jewish incidents in Australia till October 1, 2025. These range from verbal abuse and racial slurs to harassment, intimidation and Nazi salutes.

While this is below the 2,062 incidents reported in 2024, it is still far higher than the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2023 and the years prior, which some have pegged at around 342 incidents per year.

“The writing was on the wall,” Alex Ryvchin, Executive Officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told CNN. “This sort of thing was always bound to happen. But at the same time, we’re not a country with a high level of gun crime… This sort of thing just doesn’t happen here,” he added.

In fact, Burgess, the Director-General of ASIO, said in February that anti-Semitism was among the intelligence agency’s top concerns.

“Jewish Australians were increasingly conflated with the state of Israel, leading to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents. The normalisation of violent protest and intimidating behaviour lowered the threshold for provocative and potentially violent acts,” Burgess said at the release of the Annual Threat Assessment 2025 in February.
“Narratives originally centred on ‘freeing Palestine’ expanded to include incitements to ‘kill the Jews’. Threats transitioned from harassment and intimidation to specific targeting of Jewish communities, places of worship and prominent figures. I am concerned these attacks have not yet plateaued.”

Meanwhile, Jillian Segal, whom Albanese appointed as Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, released a Plan to Combat Antisemitism in July. The programme recommended steps such as adopting a uniform national definition of antisemitism, including Holocaust and antisemitism education in school curricula, and ensuring universities were addressing antisemitism.

“What once seemed distant or uncomfortable can no longer be ignored. Taunts from the Opera House steps, synagogues set alight and now massacres at a celebration form a clear pattern. This is not the Australia we know and it cannot be the Australia we accept. Australia responded decisively after Port Arthur in 1996. This moment requires the same action. Words are no longer enough,” Segal said in a statement.

However, many, including some Jewish groups, criticised Segal’s plan, saying it would hurt Australia’s democratic freedoms, such as freedom of expression, and had conflated anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the state of Israel for its conduct in the Gaza war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed Australian Prime Minister Albanese, claiming that the government had “poured fuel on the anti-Semitic fire”. Australia is among the countries that have recognised the need for a separate Palestinian state. Netanyahu has claimed Albanese’s “weakness, appeasement, and more appeasement” was at least partially responsible for the attack.

Albanese, for his part, has insisted Australia is doing enough. “Yes, we have taken it seriously, and we’ve continued to act,” he was quoted as saying by CNN.

With inputs from agencies