Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday morning (local time) that the deadly attack targeting a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was motivated by “Islamic State ideology.”
“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “The ideology that has been around for more than a decade that led to this ideology of hate, and in this case, a preparedness to engage in mass murder.”
The prime minister noted that while authorities had previously investigated one of the terrorists in 2019, he had not been considered a person of interest at that time and was not under ongoing monitoring.
“Now, whether he was radicalized further after that, what the circumstances are, that’s the subject of further investigation,” the prime minister said.
ABC reported earlier that Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, had examined one of the Bondi Beach terrorists, Naveed Akram, six years ago over his ties to a Sydney-based ISIS cell.
The British Telegraph, meanwhile, reported that Israeli intelligence officials believe that the massacre in Sydney was carried out by a foreign terrorist cell supported by Iran.
According to the report, the manner in which the attack was carried out indicates a link to characteristics identified with a unit of the terrorist organization Hezbollah - the operational arm for attacks outside Lebanon. Israel is also examining possible links to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
In his interview with ABC, Albanese also stressed that his government is working intensively to combat antisemitism in Australia.
“We are working as hard as we can,” he said. “But antisemitism, of course, has been around for a very long period of time - that’s the point. Islamic State is an ideology that, tragically, over the last decade, particularly since 2015, has led to a radicalization of some people to this extreme position, and it is a hateful action.”
Even before Sunday’s massacre, Australia had seen a sharp wave of antisemitism, including the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.
Days after the arson at Adass Israel, a car was set on fire, and two properties were vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a substantial Jewish population.
In another incident, the words "F- the Jews" were spray-painted on a car in Sydney.
In early January, the Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, a suburb of the city, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
A day later, the Newtown synagogue, located in Sydney’s inner west, was vandalized with red swastikas that were spray-painted across the building’s front wall.
In July, a Melbourne synagogue was set on fire while worshipers were inside. The arson occurred on the same night as a disturbance at a Melbourne Israeli restaurant, which sustained extensive damage.
An Australian judge ruled recently that the man who set fire to the Melbourne synagogue was motivated by mental illness, not antisemitism.