Australians fell silent in flickering candlelight on Sunday to honor the Bondi Beach shooting victims, marking one week since gunmen fired into crowds at a Jewish festival.

A father and son are accused of targeting the beachside Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people including children and Holocaust survivors on one of the nation’s darkest days.

From raucous city pubs to sleepy country towns, Australia observed a minute’s silence at 6:47 pm–exactly a week since the first reports of gunfire.

Countless homes lined their windowsills with candles in a nationwide gesture of “light over darkness”.

Summer winds buffeted flags lowered to half-mast across the country, including over the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge. A candle was lit before thousands of people held their silent vigil at Bondi Beach.

Boos

However, anger spilled over at the government’s perceived failure to act swiftly and forcefully enough after a rise in antisemitic incidents. Some booed when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s presence was announced.

“Last week took our innocence and, like the grass here at Bondi was stained with blood, so too has our nation been stained,” said David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies.

The shooting would have been a tragedy if unexpected, he said. “How much more tragic is it that the loss of life occurred despite all the warning signs being there?”

A generation of Australians has grown up with the reassuring notion that mass shootings simply do not happen in the country. That illusion was shattered when alleged gunmen Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed trained their long-barrelled weapons on the nation’s most famous beach.

The deadliest mass shooting in almost 30 years, the attack was so unthinkable that many shrugged off the first cracks of gunfire as harmless festive fireworks.

Deep sorrow

A deep sense of sorrow has settled over Australia in the past seven days. Parents Michael and Valentyna trembled and wept as they buried their 10-year-old daughter Matilda, the youngest killed in the assault.

Family members of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed during a shooting at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, react as they lean over his casket during a funeral at Chabad of Bondi, in Sydney, Australia, December 17, 2025. Reuters

The Ukrainian migrants chose her name in homage to “Waltzing Matilda”, Australia’s beloved folk ballad. Loved ones collapsed in grief as they travelled from one funeral to the next.

“The loss is unspeakable,” said rabbi Levi Wolff.

Immense bravery

Grieving families are demanding to know how the gunmen slipped through the cracks.

Unemployed bricklayer Naveed was flagged by Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019 but he fell off the radar after authorities deemed he posed no imminent threat.

Albanese has announced a sweeping buyback scheme to “get guns off our streets”.

It is the largest gun buyback since 1996, when Australia cracked down on firearms in the wake of a mass shooting that killed 35 people at Port Arthur.