WHAT WAS CLAIMED
There is evidence Israel was involved in the Bondi terrorist attack.
OUR VERDICT
False. The cited evidence is not credible.
AAP FACTCHECK - The grief has barely taken hold, yet one of the worst terror attacks in Australian history is already being hijacked and exploited through social media misinformation and disinformation.
At least 16 people are dead and 38 others are injured after two gunmen fired upon an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah on December 14, 2025.
Authorities have declared it a terrorist attack.
Several posts have falsely linked Israel to the attack, pointing to internet searches, the identity of one of the shooters and the guns used as supposed evidence.
The claims are false. The supporting evidence is not credible.
Some Facebook posts claim users in Israel were searching the name of one shooter identified in media reports, "Naveed Akram", on Google hours or even days before the attack.
The posts feature purported screenshots of time-series search activity for his name from the Google Trends website.
"My question is this? Why were people in Tel Aviv searching for Naveed Akram later identified as the alleged Bondi Beach sho**oter on December 7 and 9, days before the tragic event?" the overlay text on one post reads.
Another Facebook post with alleged screenshots of Google Trends results for Israel and India reads: "Coincidence or False Flag???"
A 'false flag' is an action designed to appear to have been perpetrated by someone other than the person or group responsible for it.
However, the claims are false as there is no credible evidence that people in Israel or India searched Google for the shooter's name before the attack.
AAP FactCheck searched Google Trends and found no results for people searching the term "Naveed Akram" in Israel or in India before Sunday's attack.
Several Instagram posts claim Akram served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
"Naveed Akram is an IDF soldier that served in Gaza and returned to Australia. Today, he lost his mind and killed 12 jews," one caption reads.
However, Akram has no reported links to Israel or the IDF.
Authorities have identified the 24-year-old as a resident of the western Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg.
He attended Cabramatta High School, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Akram has been probed for links to the Islamic State terror group, according to an ABC report.
Other posts claimed that the guns used in the attack proved Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was involved.
"The Bondi tragedy was another Mossad false flag - as only Mossad agents are able to get those exact weapons in Australia being that guns are outlawed!" one caption reads.
This is also false.
Guns are not outlawed in Australia or in NSW, where the shooting occurred.
Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon has confirmed that the second shooter, named as Akram's 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, had six firearms licensed to him.
"[The] ballistics and forensic investigation will determine this morning that those six firearms are the six that were licenced to that man, but also that they were used in the offence yesterday at Bondi," he told reporters on Monday.
Grok, X's AI chatbot, also spread confusion by misrepresenting a viral clip of an unarmed passerby, Ahmed Al Ahmed, wrestling a gun from one of the attackers.
When prompted, Grok said the clip was an "old viral video of a man climbing a palm tree in a parking lot, possibly to trim it, resulting in a branch falling and damaging a parked car."
X users added a note calling Grok's response "misleading" and confirming that the video was real.
AAP FactCheck has also debunked other false claims about the attack, including the misidentification of Mr Al Ahmed.
A website set up in Iceland on the day of the attack published a story stating that Mr Al Ahmed was actually a Bondi man called Edward Crabtree.
AAP FactCheck has also debunked several false claims published by foreign-run Facebook pages.
The pages, which are operated from Vietnam, have posted disinformation about the political response to the terrorist attack.
Several of the claims centre on supposed comments by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson in the aftermath.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
