Inquiry finds that days before Bondi massacre, Jewish group warned Aussie cops attack was ‘likely’

A Jewish community group warned police an attack was “likely” just days before two terrorists killed 15 people in a mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach, an inquiry said on Thursday.

Sajid Akram and son Naveed are accused of opening fire as Jewish families thronged Bondi Beach for a Hanukkah celebration in December, killing 15 people in Australia’s deadliest mass shooting for 30 years.

Australia’s Jewish community “was the evident target of the attack,” a high-powered royal commission tasked with investigating the shooting concluded in an interim report.

The report revealed a Jewish security group had warned police that upcoming Hanukkah celebrations were at risk in an email sent less than a week before the Bondi attack on December 14.

“A terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish Community is likely and there is a high level of antisemitic vilification,” the Community Security Group wrote in an email released by the inquiry.

Police later said they could not provide dedicated officers, but would send mobile patrols to “check in and monitor the event.”

The inquiry said police should consider ramping up security arrangements at Jewish celebrations “that have a public facing element.”

Asked by reporters if police had failed to properly monitor the Bondi event, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was a matter for the New South Wales state government.

“This is as the government envisaged — that the first task of the royal commission, the priority, was to look at the security elements of these issues,” he said.

He said his government would “implement all the recommendations” of the report, of which there were 14. Five of the recommendations remain classified due to sensitive national security concerns, according to Albanese.

“I can assure the Australian public that the government will do everything necessary to protect the community in the wake of the Bondi attack,” he declared.

The federal royal commission — the highest level of government inquiry — has been tasked with probing everything from intelligence failures to the prevalence of antisemitism in Australia.

‘We demand answers’

The mass shooting has sparked national soul-searching about antisemitism, anger over the failure to shield Jewish Australians from harm, and promises to stiffen gun laws.

Victims’ families penned an open letter in December urging Albanese to “immediately establish a Commonwealth Royal Commission into the rapid rise of antisemitism in Australia.”

“We demand answers and solutions,” they wrote.

The 154-page interim report recommends a comprehensive review of the country’s joint counterterrorism teams,” with findings to be submitted to police commissioners and the director-general of security within three months.

It also calls for expanded security protocols during Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, to include other high-profile Jewish festivals and events.

Additional measures include updating the counterterrorism handbook promptly and involving senior government officials in counterterrorism exercises, and accelerating efforts to implement a proposed national gun buyback plan.

“The review has revealed aspects in which counterterrorism capability at federal and state levels could be improved,” the report noted.

Public hearings by the commission are scheduled to start next week, with a final report due by the end of the year.

The Bondi Beach royal commission is being led by Virginia Bell, a widely respected former High Court judge.

Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the assault.

His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen who remains in prison, has been charged with terrorism and 15 murders.