At least 12 dead and 29 injured in an attack on a Jewish event at Sydney's Bondi Beach

BarcelonaTwelve people were killed and 29 wounded on Sunday at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Among the victims was one of the shooters, and another was taken to the hospital in critical condition, according to police, who did not clarify whether there were more perpetrators. Police confirmed that the target was participants in the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, where about a thousand people had gathered to watch the sunset. Counterterrorism officers are handling the investigation.

Israeli President Yitzhak Herzog condemned a "vile terrorist attack against Jews who were lighting the first Hanukkah candles on Bondi Beach." "Our hearts are with them. The heart of the entire nation of Israel beats strongly at this very moment, and let us pray for the recovery of the wounded, let us pray for them, and let us pray for those who lost their lives," he said in an official statement. "We reiterate our warning time and again to the Australian government to take action and combat the enormous wave of antisemitism sweeping through Australian society," he added.

Two videos posted on social media and verified by the BBC show two men firing shots from a small bridge over the beach. The bridge is about 50 meters from the park's children's playground. In another video, also verified, police officers on the bridge can be seen attempting to revive one of the shooters. The attack occurred almost exactly eleven years after a gunman took eighteen people hostage at the Lindt Café in Sydney. Two hostages and the attacker died after a standoff that lasted sixteen hours. Today's attack is now the deadliest in Australia since 1996, when a gunman opened fire indiscriminately on a crowd in Port Arthur, Tasmania, killing 35 people. That attack prompted the adoption of restrictive gun control laws.