Dan Elkayim, a French Jewish citizen, is one of the 11 murdered in the attack on a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach. French Foreign Minister:"We will spare no effort to root out anti-Semitism wherever it rears its head. The lights of Hanukkah will not go out"
Itamar Eichner
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French authorities confirmed this evening (Sunday) that one of the victims in
Attack in Sydney, Australia
He is Dan Elkayim, 27 years old and a French Jewish citizen who immigrated to Sydney about a year ago. He worked as an engineer and was close to Chabad.
2 Viewing the gallery
The late Dan Elkayim
Jean-Noël Barrow, France's Foreign Minister, confirmed that the late Elkayim was murdered in the attack."It is with deep sorrow that we received the news that our compatriot, Dan Elkayim, was among the victims of the heinous terrorist attack that targeted Jewish families gathered on Bondi Beach in Sydney, on the first day of the Hanukkah holiday," he said.
"We mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and with the Australian people who are in mourning. This criminal act is another tragic expression of the shocking outbreak of anti-Semitic hatred, which we must stop with all force. France will spare no effort to uproot anti-Semitism wherever it raises its head, and to combat terrorism in all its manifestations. The lights of Hanukkah are not extinguished, and will not be extinguished."
11 people were murdered in the anti-Semitic terrorist attack
And the number of injured stands at 29. After it was revealed that one of the terrorists was Naveed Akram, a 24-year-old Sydney resident, and that the police rushed to raid his home and arrested two people in his area, investigators announced at noon that they were looking into the possibility that a third terrorist was also involved in the attack. Under the bridge from which the terrorists opened fire and in the car in which they apparently arrived, the police found several explosive devices at noon, and saboteurs neutralized them. In the meantime, the assessment in Israel is growing that Iran is behind the massacre.
The attack this morning (evening hours in Australia) took place at the northern end of the famous Bondi Beach, near or inside the Bondi Park amusement park. At the time, a party was being held there under the title"Hanukkah by the Sea," organized by Chabad members, and attended by more than 1,000 people. The event was scheduled for 5:00 PM local time, and after it began, while one of the community's senior leaders was giving a speech, fire suddenly opened on the celebrants from a nearby bridge.
The shooting was carried out by two men wearing black, and footage from the scene later shows one of them being hit by return fire and falling to the ground, after his friend had been neutralized earlier. In other dramatic footage, a civilian is seen leaping at one of the terrorists from behind and snatching his weapon. In other videos, civilians and police officers were seen wrestling the two shooters to the floor, with CPR being performed on one of them, and it was later reported that one of the terrorists died from his wounds, and the condition of the other, Navid Akram, is described as serious.
In addition to Alkayim, a Chabad emissary in Australia was murdered in the attack.
Rabbi Eli Shlenger
, a child from a Jewish school and
Holocaust survivor Alex Kleitman.
Alex's wife, Larissa, told the Daily Mail that he was shot dead in the attack while trying to protect her. They had been married for about 50 years and had come to the event from the town of Materville in the suburbs of Sydney."I think he was hit because he stood up to protect me, and a bullet hit him in the head," Larissa said. She noted that Alex spent World War II as a child in Siberia in extremely difficult conditions. When they grew up, the couple emigrated to Australia from Ukraine, and had two children and 11 grandchildren.
Rabbi Eli Shlenger, late
Rabbi Schlanger was shot to death a few weeks after the circumcision of his fifth son, and was one of the organizers of the event. Schlanger came to Sydney in 2008 for Chabad activities and to support the Jewish community there. Alongside his activities in Sydney, he was involved, among other things, in commemorating the victims of the October 7 massacre around the world. In recent months, he has come to Israel and has also been photographed strengthening and encouraging IDF soldiers, and in his WhatsApp profile picture he appears surrounded by soldiers.
Just a few weeks ago, he wrote to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, in response to the Labor government's decision there to recognize a Palestinian state."Kereb in Sydney, I appeal to you to please not betray the Jewish people, not God. This land was given by God to Abraham, then to his son Isaac, and then to Jacob, to be the eternal homeland of the Jewish people," he wrote.
