The “meticulous” plan that the perpetrators of the shooting on Australia’s Bondi beach developed over months

A man dressed in black points a gun. — caption, According to police, a screenshot of a video found on Naveed Akram’s phone shows his father training with firearms.

- Author, Katy Watson
- Author title, BBC Australia correspondent
December 22, 2025
Reading time: 7 mins

According to new court documents, the alleged perpetrators of the attack on Australia’s Bondi Beach threw explosives at the start of the attack and had practiced shooting weeks before.

According to the documents, the pair “meticulously” planned the attack for months and visited Bondi two days before the shooting to scout the crime scene.

Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured when two gunmen opened fire at a Hanukkah celebration on December 14.

According to the documents, the explosives, including a “tennis ball-shaped bomb,” did not explode.

Naveed Akram, 24, was charged with 59 crimes, including 15 counts of murder and one count of terrorism. The second attacker, his father, Sajid Akram, was killed by police at the scene.

Map of the Bondi Beach area where the attack occurred.

An injunction was issued last week to prevent the release of the police report and protect the identity of the survivors. That order was lifted on Monday and the documents were made public, with some parts redacted.

The new court documents detail several videos showing the alleged attackers’ movements in the months, days and hours before the attack.

caption, Another screenshot that police say shows Naveed Akram during firearms training.

Islamic State

In a video shot on one of their cellphones in October, the men can be seen sitting in front of an image of the Islamic State group’s (IS) flag.

According to police, they commented on their motives for the attack and condemned “actions of the Zionists.”

It was also recorded that Naveed Akram “recited a passage from the Quran in Arabic.”

Police reported that other footage from October showed the father and son “undertaking firearms training in a rural area”, presumably in New South Wales.

They were seen “firing shotguns and moving tactically,” authorities added.

CCTV footage from the night of December 12 shows two men, “presumably the defendant and his father”, in their car on Bondi Beach.

They are seen “exiting the vehicle and walking along the sidewalk in the same location where they were two days later, shooting at passers-by,” the document says.

“The police believe that this is evidence of the knowledge and planning of a terrorist act.”

A black and white Islamic State flag in a car. — caption, According to the documents, two Islamic State (IS) group flags were hung in the attackers’ vehicle before the attack began.

Weapons and flags

At around 2:00 a.m. (1500 GMT) on the day of the attack, two men were caught on surveillance cameras leaving rented accommodation in the Sydney suburb of Campsie carrying “long, bulky items wrapped in blankets” which they put into a car.

The documents show that those items included two single-barreled shotguns, a Beretta rifle, four improvised explosive devices and two Islamic State flags.

According to police, the men were seen leaving the property shortly after 5:00 p.m. (0800 GMT). Other footage shows them arriving in Bondi at 6:50 p.m. (09:50 GMT), where they parked and placed the flags in the front and back windows.

According to the documents, they are then seen removing the firearms and explosive devices from the car before walking to a pedestrian walkway.

Sajid Akram was shot dead in a shootout with New South Wales Police officers.

Naveed Akram was seriously injured by police gunfire. He was released from the hospital on Monday and taken to prison.

A blurry image shows a white package with red wires sticking out of it in the trunk of a car. — caption, According to police, a homemade bomb was found in the trunk of the Akrams’ vehicle.

A composite image purportedly showing two pipe bombs. — caption, According to police, the weapons used by the attackers also included three homemade bombs.

Protect the Jewish community

In the week since the shooting, the Jewish community has accused Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not taking anti-Semitic threats seriously enough.

On Sunday he was booed by parts of the crowd at a memorial event attended by tens of thousands of people.

He apologized to Jewish Australians and promised to “work every day” to protect them. He also proposed promoting new laws against extremism and hate speech.

But Albanese could face an even bigger problem as questions mount over the handling of intelligence information about the alleged attackers and whether they have been fully investigated.

It was previously reported that Naveed Akram was under investigation for his links to a Sydney-based Islamic State terror cell.

Albanese had said he first came to the attention of authorities in 2019, but concluded there was “no evidence of an ongoing threat or that he might commit acts of violence.”

Questions are also raised as to why, given these previous investigations, the father and son were able to travel to the Philippines a month before the attack and how the father was able to purchase weapons. At a news conference on Monday, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said he did not want to speculate and that the investigation was ongoing.

Pressure is also growing on Albanese to convene a royal commission, the highest level of public inquiry in Australia, into the Bondi terror attack, with calls coming from the Jewish community and MPs.

The attack also sparked calls for restrictions on gun ownership to be tightened. On Monday, the state of New South Wales convened its parliament to debate a series of new gun and protest laws proposed in the wake of the shooting.

Some civil rights groups and gun rights advocates have expressed concern that the laws unduly restrict firearms and protests.

Minns said some may think the changes have gone “too far,” but warned they are necessary to keep the community safe.