From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 16, 2025
First funerals for victims of Bondi Hanukkah attack to be held tomorrow
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleZev Stub is the Times of Israel's reporter on diaspora affairs and Israeli real estate.
The first funerals of victims of the terror attack on a Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach will be held tomorrow, a Zaka volunteer tells The Times of Israel.
As it stands now, six of the 15 victims are scheduled to be buried on Wednesday, says Simcha Greineman, a volunteer for Zaka who flew from Israel to Australia to help with the religious preparations for the burials.
Greineman and other Zaka volunteers, charged with gathering the body parts of the victims in order to give them a proper burial, says his team arrived in Sydney yesterday, but police only gave them access to the crime scene tonight, he says. Identification efforts will continue throughout the night ahead of the funerals, he added.
“We want to make sure we have whatever remains we can to conduct their rites,” Greineman says.
Australian officials have been unable to reveal the identities of some of the last victims because they are foreign nationals, and authorities don’t have DNA records or other forensic details needed to confirm their identities, Greineman says.
The Times of Israel Community.