BONDI Beach gunman Naveed Akram had pledged allegiance to Islamic State, authorities believe.
Akram, 24, was investigated by Australian spy agency the ASIO in 2019.
Naveed’s father, Sajid Akram, 50, was also named as a suspect.
The father and son are thought to be responsible for the killing of at least 15 people in Sydney yesterday.
The suspected shooters were named by the Australian PM for the first time last night.
The attack targeted Jewish families celebrating Hannukkah on the beach, and left 42 people injured in hospital, five of whom are fighting for their lives in critical condition.
GET WELL
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FAMILY ATTACK
Bondi Beach shooters are father and son after 15 killed in ‘act of pure evil’
The ABC reported that the ASIO had investigated the 24-year-old shooter for six months in 2019, after the arrest of an Islamic state terrorist.
Akram was examined for “close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State (IS) terrorism cell”, according to the ABC.
The Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) believe Akram’s father also pledged loyalty to IS.
The 50-year-old dad was shot dead by cops during the attack with his 24-year-old son left in critical condition in hospital.
An Iranian-backed terror cell may have been responsible for the attack, according to Israeli intelligence sources.
Although Australian officials have not confirmed overseas involvement in the attack, Israeli officials pointed to Iran as a primary suspect.
Links with groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba are also being investigated, Israeli media reports suggest.
Israeli intelligence sources said that the Sydney shooting was well-planned, carrying the hallmarks of Hezbollah’s feared external operations arm Unit 910.
Just three months ago, Australia expelled its Iranian ambassador after it claimed Tehran had ordered attacks against Jewish targets in the country in 2024.
These included an October arson attack on a Sydney cafe and an attack on a Melbourne synagogue in December.
At the time, ASIO boss Mike Burgess said his team had found links “between the alleged crimes and the commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC”.
Ronen Solomon, an Israeli intelligence expert on Hezbollah, told The Daily Telegraph that Iranian terror groups hide out in Australia.
He said: “Australia has long been known to be a hub for Hezbollah and Iran’s sleeping cells, so it could even be a joint operation between Hezbollah and Quds Force.
“But this will mean it’s going to be very hard to pin this incident on them as Iran will want to cover this up as an anti-Semitic incident.”
Police sources told The Daily Telegraph that the alleged shooters had spent a month together in the Philippines before the massacre.
An intelligence source said the pair followed a “well trodden path” for Islamic extremist radicalisation by visiting the country.
The source told the Daily Telegraph: “There’s areas down there that are very dangerous… (with) training camps and the like.
“It has become a well trodden path for Islamic State through South East Asia and into the Philippines ever since 2019.”
The fifteen people killed in Sunday’s brutal attack on the Australian Jewish community included a holocaust survivortwo rabbis, and a 10-year-old child.
London-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger is among the dead, and was described by his cousin as “vivacious, optimistic and full of energy and life”.
The 41-year-old father-of-five “dedicated his life to adding light and to spreading Torah and Judaism” his cousin Rabbi Dovid Lewis told Sky News.
Alex Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor, was killed while protecting his wife from bullets.
Matilda, 10, the attack’s youngest victim, was described as a “bright, joyful, and spirited child” by her teacher Irina Goodhew.
The 10-year-old’s aunt, Linda, confirmed the heartbreaking news in a social media post.
She wrote: “A great tragedy has happened to my family. Yesterday my beloved niece Matilda was killed during a terrorist attack in Bondi Beach.
“I don’t know how we survive such grief.”
Rabbi Yaakov Levitan, Reuven Morrison and French citizen Dan Elkayam were also among the dead.
The death toll could have been even larger if a hero shopkeeper hadn’t wrestled and disarmed one of the gunmen.
Brave fruit shop-owner Ahmed Al Ahmed, 43, can be seen in dramatic footage wrestling and seizing a firearm from the gunman.
As the shooter lies on the ground, Al Ahmed briefly turns the gun at him, but does not pull the trigger, calmly placing the weapon on the ground.
Prime Minister Albanese called the brutal attack: “An act of evil antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation.”
He told a Canberra press conference: “The evil that was unleashed at Bondi Beach today is beyond comprehension, and the trauma and loss that families are dealing with tonight is beyond anyone’s worst nightmare.
“We have seen Australians today run towards danger in order to help others. These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives.”
Australian Police said the older shooter had six firearms registered to him, with six were recovered from the scene.
Two “rudimentary” bombs were also found at the scene and taken away to be deactivated, cops say.
Authorities ruled out looking for a third suspect, and said there was “no indication to indicate that either of the men involved in yesterday’s attack was planning the attack that happened yesterday.”
New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon said: “The older man had a licence for around 10 years, without any reported incidents.”
Police raided two properties: an AirBnB in Brighton Avenue, Campsie, where the suspected shooters spent the weekend, and their family home in Bonnyrigg.
The two-bedroom short-stay rental is just over half-an-hour’s drive from Bondi Beach, where the horrifying assault took place.
A flag linked to Islamic state was discovered in a small silver car used by the suspected shooters, police sources told the Sydney Herald.
The flag was found late on Sunday night, and was part of the reason police were able to declare the shooting a terror attack so quickly.
Naveed’s mother Verena told the The Sydney Morning Herald that her son was “a good boy” who did not even own a gun.
She said he had told her he was going to Jervis Bay for the weekend, and that she had spoken to him on the phone the morning of the attack.
Verena said: “He rings me up and said, ‘Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving.
We’re going … to eat now, and then this morningand we’re going to stay home now because it’s very hot’.”
She insisted that Narveed, who worked as a bricklayer until being laid off two months ago, was “a good boy”.
Verena said: “He doesn’t have a firearm. He doesn’t even go out. He doesn’t mix around with friends. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t go to bad places.
“He goes to work, he comes home, he goes to exercise, and that’s it.
“Anyone would wish to have a son like my son … he’s a good boy.”
Former schoolmates of the alleged shooter described him as a “quiet loner”.
They told the Daily Mail that Naveed was “really nicesmart and polite kid” and “the last person you would expect”.
Steven Luong, who used to play basketball with the suspectsaid that his stomach dropped when he saw Naveed’s picture on the news.
He said: “I could have never imagined in 100 years that this could be his doing.”
“He was a very nice person. He never did anything unusual.
“He never even interrupted in class.”
Forty people are still being treated in hospital, including two injured police officers.
In response to the brutal attack, thousands of Aussies have donated blood in the largest donation drive the country has seen in 16 years.
Cath Stone, the Executive Director in Donor Experience from Australian Red Cross Lifeblood said more than 40,000 people had rushed to donate.
She said: “This is the biggest community response we’ve seen since the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria in 2009.
“We’d like to thank everyone who has visited our centres or made an appointment to donate today and in the days ahead.
“When tragic events occur, donating blood and plasma is one way to help people.
“The need for more blood and plasma donors is ongoing.”
Politicians must wake up to threat
By Noah Hoffman
THE Jewish community in Sydney lives peacefully among the sand and sea.
They work hard, spend weekends surfing, jogging along the golden crescent coastline, and slurp green smoothies under the blazing sun – like every other Bondi Aussie.
They chill on the beach, and every year at Chanukah they eat jam doughnuts and light a menorah.
I know this all too well because the eastern suburbs of Sydney are where I grew up – my life before moving to the UK.
Bondi is home to Sydney’s vibrant Jewish community, including my grandmother, sister, aunts and many cousins.
In a tragic turn, the beautiful beach life I enjoyed until 19 is no more.
Sydney’s small, quiet Jewish community, like Britain’s, now finds itself at the mercy of Islamist extremists.
These vile radicals – who do not represent mainstream Muslims – have been left to fester, almost unchecked, in closed-off pockets that refuse to integrate with wider society.
They’re aided and abetted by woke lefties who are obsessed with Israel.
Most dangerously, they’re wilfully ignored by MPs who enjoy the votes that come with appeasing them.
The result of politicians in Australia and Britain turning a blind eye to these dangerous extremists is death.
Death that struck at the Heaton Park Synagogue on Yom Kippur, in my adopted home of England.
And death in my birthplace this Chanukah, at a joyful party by the Sydney sea.
Thankfully my family in Bondi are all ok – but they are also distraught with fear.
Until politicians, particularly Labour, wake up to this threat, more of these grim days will unfold.
Leave a sick, twisted ideology like extremist Islamism to rot, and consequences follow.
For some Labour MPs that may mean more votes – but for my deeply patriotic, quiet community, who just want to get on with life, it means murder.
I hope politicians choose the right path.