Israel’s ambassador to Australia: ‘I am in shock at this mass murder, and Australian government’s helplessness’ in face of threats to Jewish community

The number of dead in the Sydney shooting is “higher than what has been reported,” Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon tells Channel 12 news.

There was no concrete intelligence about an impending attack, says Maimon after speaking with Australian authorities, but there were warnings in the national threat assessment about the likelihood of terrorist attacks.

“Since October 7 we have witnessed a series of actions against the Jewish community and its institutions, a series that only intensified,” Maimon says, adding that he said publicly on numerous occasions that “if I were to wake up one morning and learn that a Jew was physically harmed, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

At the same time, he says that he is “in shock from this mass murder, and from the Australian government’s helplessness in preventing it.”

Maimon is in Israel, and is headed back to Australia.

A report published recently by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said the country saw 1,654 incidents during the 12-month period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025 — about five times the annual average recorded in the decade prior to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack that launched the war in Gaza.

That was less, however, than the 2,062 incidents recorded the previous year, during the year immediately following the Hamas attack, ECAJ noted, although the impact of the attacks on the community remained high.