Australian officials, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, and Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon, addressed the press on Monday morning (local time), following the murderous shooting attack at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney the previous evening.
Premier Minns opened the press conference by calling on Australia to fight antisemitism, "Whether it's destructive, horrible acts of violence, or chants, mottos, and internet posts on the internet. Wherever it is, we need to fight antisemitism; it is toxic, it is cancerous within a community, and as you can see from last night, it leads to devastating, devastating implications for the people of our country," he stated.
Premier Chris Minns confirmed that the death toll of 16 includes the terrorist who was killed by police.
Prime Minister Albanese called the attack "an act of pure evil. He said that Sunday was "indeed a dark day in our nation's history, but we as a nation are stronger than the cowards that did this."
The Prime Minister also declared that flags across the country will be lowered to half-mast throughout the day.
Albanese deflected a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks blaming him for the attack, simply stating: "This is a moment for national unity. This is a moment for Australians to come together. That's precisely what we'll be doing."
The Australian Prime Minister also dodged a question of whether his government had failed Jewish Australians in the fight against antisemitism. Albanese said the government would "continue to stand with Jewish Australians. We stand with them, we stand against anti-Semitism, we will do whatever is necessary to stamp it out."
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon announced the launch of Operation Arques, a joint counterterrorism operation with other departments in the country to investigate the shooting attack in Sydney.
He confirmed that the two terrorists involved in the attack were father and son. The father, 50, was eliminated at the scene. The son, aged 24, is in a critical but stable condition.
According to Lanyon, the elder terrorist had been a licensed firearm holder for ten years and had six weapons licensed to him. Six firearms were seized at the scene and at the terrorist's home. "Ballistics and forensic investigation will determine whether those six firearms are the six that were licensed to that man," he said.
The commissioner clarified that there were no additional terrorists at large.
He also announced "Operation Shelter," which will involve more than 300 police personnel and is designed to "provide comfort to the Jewish community."
"We'll make sure we're highly visible at places of worship, places that are known to be frequented by the Jewish community, but very much in those suburbs we know we have a large Jewish population," Lanayon stated.
He pledged the police would not tolerate violence or any antisemitic behavior.