Misinformation Spreads Following Bondi Beach Attack in Sydney
Videos falsely claiming celebrations following a deadly attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney circulated widely on social media after gunmen opened fire on a crowd during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on December 14, 2025. The attack resulted in the deaths of 15 people and left many others injured, triggering a wave of misinformation that misrepresented events occurring in other countries.
The misleading videos, which were shared in various posts, allegedly show celebrations in the United Kingdom and Pakistan in response to the Sydney shooting. However, investigations reveal that these clips predate the attack and depict unrelated events. One of the videos shows a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Manchester from June, while another features a fireworks display in Karachi following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023.
One widely circulated video on Facebook included a caption in Hindi that stated, “After the terrorist attack in Sydney, Palestinian supporters celebrated in Manchester. Is this community more dangerous than even monsters?” The footage shows masked individuals chanting and waving a Palestinian flag on a train platform. Another video shared on X, formerly Twitter, depicted a fireworks display with a crowd waving Pakistani and Palestinian flags, with a caption claiming, “Pakistanis are celebrating the Sydney attack with Hamas flags and Palestinian songs.”
In reality, the videos had been circulating prior to the Bondi Beach shooting. A reverse image search of keyframes from the Manchester video confirmed it was part of a thread about a demonstration that occurred on June 8, 2025. The second clip, featuring the Karachi fireworks, was traced back to an X post from October 8, 2023, celebrating Hamas’s earlier actions.
Ghazi Abbas, a spokesperson for the Karachi-based Imamia Student Organisation, stated, “This is an old video,” confirming that the Karachi clip shows celebrations from an event organized in October 2023. The organization further clarified the context of the video on its Facebook page, stating that it depicted a program held “under the banner of the ‘Victory Celebration of Hamas.'”
The attack in Sydney, which authorities described as an effort to instill fear among the Jewish community, involved two gunmen, one of whom was identified as 50-year-old Sajid Akram. He was shot and killed by police, while his 24-year-old son Naveed was also shot and remains in the hospital under police guard.
The incident at Bondi Beach is part of a larger, ongoing conflict. Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people and ignited a prolonged war in Gaza, which has seen retaliatory actions resulting in the deaths of at least 70,373 people, according to the health ministry in the territory, a figure that the United Nations has deemed reliable.
As misinformation continues to spread in the wake of the Bondi attack, authorities and fact-checking organizations, including AFP, have made efforts to debunk false narratives and clarify the context surrounding the tragic event. The rapid dissemination of misleading content highlights the ongoing challenges of accurately reporting on sensitive international incidents.
