The mother of one of the Bondi Beach gunmen has insisted her son is “a good boy”.
Naveed Akram and his father have been identified as the attackers who opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney, killing 15 people.
The father, 50, who owns a fruit shop, died after being shot by police, while Akram, 24, remains in a critical condition in hospital.
Their home in Bonnyrigg, 50km west of Bondi, was raided by police in the hours after the massacre, Australia’s worst-ever terror attack.
Speaking as officers surrounded their home, Akram’s mother, Verena, said she could not believe he would carry out a terror attack and insisted he is a “good boy”.
She told the Sydney Morning Herald: “He doesn’t have a firearm. He doesn’t even go out. He doesn’t mix around with friends. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t go to bad places … he goes to work, he comes home, he goes to exercise, and that’s it.
“Anyone would wish to have a son like my son … he’s a good boy.”
The father and son told their family they were away on a fishing trip in Jervis Bay over the weekend, 200km south of Sydney.
Verena said she last spoke with Akram on Sunday morning, hours before the attack.
She said: “He rings me up [on Sunday] and said, ‘Mum, I just went for a swim. I went scuba diving. We’re going … to eat now, and then this morning, and we’re going to stay home now because it’s very hot.’”
Social media posts from an Islamic centre in Australia show Akram completed religious studies in 2022, raising questions about possible radicalisation and extremist networks operating in the country.
Adam Ismail, the head of the Al-Murad Islamic Institute, where Akram studied, declined to comment when contacted by the Telegraph.
Akram was laid off as a bricklayer when his company became insolvent and was looking for work in recent weeks.
His mother said he had many friends as a teenager at Cabramatta High School, but was not especially social, preferring to spend his time fishing, scuba diving and swimming.
Verena is a carer for her elderly mother and a stay-at-home mother for Akram and his younger sister, 22, and brother, 20.
The suburb of Bonnyrigg is home to a large migrant population, with significant Chinese and Vietnamese communities.
On Sunday night, chaos erupted near his home as police descended on the town.
The street was cordoned off and a helicopter buzzed overhead as dozens of officers swarmed his house.
Residents pleaded to get past the cordon to return home, but were kept away as investigators tried to gather information about the mass shooter.
After being told to move, a group of men became aggressive towards the officers, threatening a policewoman and placing their hands on her handcuffs, the Daily Mail reported.
The attack is being treated as a terrorist incident and is one of the deadliest acts of anti-Semitic violence in Australian history.
Video footage from the scene shows two men dressed in black firing rifles towards the beach from a bridge above a nearby carpark about 6.40pm on Sunday. Police have maintained a heavy presence at the site, with teams of detectives moving in and out under guard as ambulances arrived.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon urged calm, saying investigators were working through multiple lines of inquiry.
Israeli authorities said they were examining responsibility for the attack amid concerns it may have been orchestrated by a foreign state or militant organisations. The shooting occurred against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Australia and Iran, following a series of suspected Iranian-directed attacks on Jewish targets in the country.
Australian officials have not publicly confirmed any foreign involvement. However, Israeli officials cited Iran as a primary suspect if a state actor were involved, while also examining possible links to groups including Hezbollah, Hamas and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to Israeli media reports.
A senior Israeli security official told Israel Hayom there had been “increased activity by Iran in recent months to orchestrate attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world”, adding that investigators believed the “direction and infrastructure” of the Bondi Beach attack originated in Tehran.
An Israeli intelligence source cited by the newspaper said activity by Iran and its allies had “markedly increased” in recent months. Another Israeli official said Australia had been among the countries affected, noting that the Australian Government had previously taken action against the Iranian embassy following specific intelligence warnings.
“There is no doubt that the direction and infrastructure for the attack originated in Tehran,” the official said.
Isaac Herzog, Israel’s President, condemned the shooting as a “cruel attack on Jews”.
“At these very moments, our sisters and brothers in Sydney have been attacked by vile terrorists,” he said. “We are utterly shocked and bereaved.”
Meanwhile, some supporters of Iran’s regime celebrated the attack on social media. One post praised Akram as “the most diligent member of the 2000s generation to date”.
Iranian state media reported the shooting using derogatory language, with Tasnim news agency describing the victims in terms similar to those used during recent hostilities between Israel and Iran.
Australia formally listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation last month. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expelled Iran’s ambassador in August and suspended Australia’s embassy operations in Tehran, accusing the Islamic Republic of recruiting criminals to carry out anti-Semitic attacks on Australian soil.
Australia’s spy chief, Mike Burgess, said in August that Iran had “lit the matches and fanned the flames” of anti-Semitism in Australia.
He said Tehran had directed at least two arson attacks in the past year, including incidents targeting a Melbourne synagogue and a Sydney Jewish restaurant.
“Iran and its proxies are directing, through a series of cutouts, people in Australia to undertake these crimes,” Burgess said.
Lewis’s Continental Kitchen, a kosher cafe in Bondi, was targeted in an arson attack in October last year. An Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea, in Melbourne’s southeast, was also attacked in December. No injuries were reported.
Albanese said it was likely the Iranian Government had directed further attacks on Jewish targets.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” he said. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”
The expulsion of ambassador Ahmad Sadeghi marked the most severe diplomatic crisis between Australia and Iran since the two countries established relations in 1968. Australia has also ordered embassy staff to leave Iran and advised citizens to depart if possible.
An Israeli citizen is among those killed in the Bondi Beach attack, Israel’s foreign ministry confirmed.
Gideon Sa’ar, the Israeli Foreign Minister, urged Canberra to act against what he described during a phone call with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong as a rise in anti-Semitism.
“Since October 7 there has been a surge in anti-Semitism in Australia,” he said, calling on the Government to take stronger action against violent incitement.
The Iranian foreign ministry on Sunday denounced a “violent attack” in Sydney.
“We condemn the violent attack in Sydney, Australia. Terror and killing of human beings, wherever committed, is rejected and condemned,” Esmaeil Baqaei, the foreign ministry spokesman, said on X.
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