Intelligence warned Australia of Iranian-linked terror activity months before Bondi attack, officials say

Senior Israeli quality officials accidental Australia was warned months successful beforehand astir the constitution of foreign-linked panic infrastructure connected its soil, including enactment aimed astatine Jewish communities, amid increasing concerns astir some Iranian-directed operations and a imaginable resurgence of ISIS successful Syria.

According to a elder Israeli quality authoritative who spoke connected inheritance with Fox News Digital, Israel’s overseas quality work provided Australian authorities with factual warnings astir what the authoritative described arsenic Iranian-directed panic enactment operating wrong Australia. The warning, the authoritative said, was not astir the Bondi Beach onslaught specifically, but astir broader efforts to physique panic networks with the intent of harming Jewish targets.

"We stopped a fewer ticking bombs," the authoritative said. "The people was connected people’s heads."

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People locomotion arsenic constabulary officers basal defender connected the thoroughfare pursuing a shooting incidental astatine Bondi Beach, successful Sydney, Australia, Dec. 14, 2025.  (AAP/Jeremy Piper/via Reuters)

The authoritative said Israeli quality identified Iranian guidance and coordination, including operatives allegedly possessing weapons and operating "in the halfway of Jewish communities," portion remaining undetected by section authorities.

In the months preceding the Bondi Beach attack, the Australian authorities expelled Iran’s ambassador aft its home information services publically accused Iran of directing oregon enabling attacks against Jewish targets successful Australia. Tehran rejected the allegations and denied involvement.

After the shooting, Iranian authorities media published an authoritative condemnation of the attack, denouncing the sidesplitting of civilians and rejecting immoderate transportation betwixt Iran and the violence. Australian officials said the probe into the onslaught remains ongoing and person not attributed it to a overseas state. An quality root said we volition cognize successful the adjacent fewer days if determination has been specified guidance.

The Israeli quality assessments align with warnings from a elder overseas diplomatic source, who described the existent menace situation arsenic being driven by a planetary contagion effect, successful which extremist networks worldwide amplify and observe attacks, encouraging others to replicate them.

According to the diplomatic source, online jihadist ecosystems play a cardinal relation successful accelerating this dynamic, rapidly turning incitement into action. From an operational standpoint, the root said specified attacks are progressively charismatic to extremists due to the fact that they are comparatively elemental to transportation retired portion producing disproportionate impact.

AFTER AUSTRALIA’S HANUKKAH MASSACRE, CRITICS SAY APPEASING EXTREMISTS AFTER OCT 7 FUELED RISING ANTISEMITISM

Armed constabulary enactment astatine the country aft a shooting incidental astatine Bondi Beach successful Sydney connected Dec. 14, 2025. Australian constabulary said 2 radical were successful custody pursuing reports of aggregate gunshots astatine Sydney's famed Bondi Beach, urging the nationalist to instrumentality shelter. (David Gray/AFP via Getty Images)

Two sources cautioned that the menace extends beyond Jewish targets, informing that attacks against Christian communities are besides plausible, peculiarly during overlapping Jewish and Christian vacation periods that thin to heighten extremist motivation.

The elder Israeli quality authoritative said Australia is not an isolated case, describing what helium said is simply a crisp planetary emergence successful Iranian-linked panic enactment targeting Jews.

"Since the war, determination is simply a immense emergence successful attempts by Iran to execute panic each implicit the satellite against Jews," the authoritative said. "Not lone Australia."

The authoritative said Israeli quality has identified oregon disrupted akin enactment successful Europe, Africa and Asia, including Germany, Austria and aggregate locations beyond the Middle East, arsenic good arsenic alleged plots successful South America, India and Thailand.

"If you knew however galore panic attacks the Mossad has prevented, you would driblet your jaw," the authoritative told Fox News Digital.

A 2nd elder Israeli quality root said the menace scenery has worsened aft 2 years of warfare successful the Middle East, which the root said has energized extremist Islamist movements globally.

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Police teams instrumentality information measures astatine Bondi Beach successful Sydney, Australia, connected Sunday aft a violent onslaught targeting the Jewish assemblage during the archetypal nighttime of Hanukkah.  ( Claudio Galdames A/Anadolu via Getty Images)

According to the source, the menace progressively comes from lone actors oregon sleeper cells, which necessitate minimal resources and are harder to detect, but tin inactive origin wide casualties and animate copycat attacks.

The root warned successful peculiar astir developments successful Syria, saying the instability determination could let ISIS to regroup and reemerge, creating caller waves of unit beyond the region. "I’m disquieted astir Syria and that ISIS volition return," the root said, portion besides informing that the caller onslaught successful Australia could animate further unit elsewhere.

The quality warnings resurfaced aft a panic onslaught Sunday evening astatine a nationalist Hanukkah solemnisation connected Bondi Beach, 1 of Australia’s astir iconic and densely populated locations.

Australian authorities said 2 gunmen — a begetter and his big lad — opened occurrence connected the beach, sidesplitting astatine slightest 15 radical and wounding dozens. Police said the begetter was killed astatine the scene, portion the lad was changeable by officers and taken to a infirmary successful captious condition. Authorities classified the shooting arsenic a violent onslaught targeting the Jewish community.

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A menorah is projected onto the Sydney Opera House sails aft a shooting during a Hanukkah solemnisation astatine Bondi Beach successful Sydney, Australia, connected Dec. 15, 2025.  (Reuters/Hollie Adams)

While Australian officials person not linked the Bondi Beach onslaught to overseas quality direction, the incidental has intensified scrutiny of earlier warnings, the emergence successful antisemitic incidents nationwide and whether capable enactment was taken to disrupt emerging threats.

Australian leaders person condemned the attack, accrued information astir Jewish institutions and pledged to reappraisal counterterrorism measures.