Maryland Gov. Wes Moore condemned the attack on a Hanukkah celebration at a famous Australian beach Sunday morning, calling the violence antisemitic.

“To Maryland’s Jewish community, the First Lady and I know this horrific tragedy hits close to home, and our hearts break alongside Jewish communities around the world,” he said in a statement. “Hanukkah teaches us that light can overcome darkness.”

Two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.

The massacre at one of Australia’s most popular and iconic beaches followed a wave of antisemitic attacks that have roiled the country over the past year, although the authorities didn’t suggest those episodes and Sunday’s shooting were connected. It is the deadliest shooting in almost three decades in a country with strict gun control laws.

One gunman was fatally shot by police and the second, who was arrested, was in critical condition, authorities said. Police said one of the gunmen was known to the security services, but that there had been no specific threat.

At least 29 people were confirmed wounded, including two police officers, said Mal Lanyon, the police commissioner for New South Wales state, where Sydney is located.

Police said officers were examining a number of suspicious items, including several improvised explosive devices found in one of the suspect’s cars.

“This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said. He said it was declared a terrorist attack due to the event targeted and weapons used.

Maryland reactions

Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen, who is Jewish, called the attack “a moment of profound darkness” on a holiday meant to be the celebration of light. Antisemitism and other forms bigotry are on the rise, he said, noting that he’d spent part of last week having a Nazi insignia removed from a local billboard.

“The only way out is to embrace each other as neighbors,” Cohen said in a statement. “I refuse to live in fear. I love our beautiful, complex, diverse city. Shalom.”

Cohen will attend a menorah lighting at the Inner Harbor Sunday evening with Mayor Brandon Scott.

Baltimore City Council member Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, who is also Jewish, said the attack shows why it is necessary to plainly denounce antisemitism. He said he is praying for the victims and Sydney’s Jewish community, as well as “true peace, built on moral clarity, not silence.”

“Despite the darkness, we will not hide,” he wrote on social media. “We will light our candles. We will live openly as Jews. We will spread light while others choose hate.”

Mark Conway, also a city council member, called the violence “an explicit act of hatred aimed at Jewish people.”

“We must all take up the cause of eradicating antisemitism and making our communities safe for our Jewish neighbors,” he said online.

Baltimore County Council member Julian Jones said in a statement Sunday morning that he was “heartbroken and outraged” by the attack.

He called antisemitism “a deadly force” that “knows no borders and can never be dismissed as someone else’s problem.”

“We must reject it resoundingly and confront it decisively to ensure it finds no safe harbor in Baltimore County or in our nation,” he said. “To our Jewish neighbors: you are not alone. We stand with you in grief, in solidarity, and in firm resolve against the rising tide of hate your community has too often endured.”

Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, a co-founder of the Jewish Federation of Annapolis & the Chesapeake, said the organization’s menorah lighting will go on as planned Sunday evening. Annapolis Mayor Jared Littmann helped the group ramp up police protections ahead of the event, she said.

“Clearly, no matter where we live, we have a lot of work to do,“ she wrote in an email to community members. ”May your Chanukah be bright, and antisemitism and all hate end now!”

U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth, an Annapolis Democrat, changed her schedule after the attack to also attend the local ceremony, according to the federation.

In Montgomery County, the police department sought to reassure residents that there was “no known threat” to them. In a statement, department officials wrote that they had increased patrols and visibility around Jewish institutions.

“I have heard directly from members of Montgomery County’s Jewish community who are shaken and concerned, and I want them to know that their safety is a priority,” Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement reiterating the heightened security.

U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney, a Democrat whose district includes part of Montgomery County, said she is still processing the news of the Sydney attack and another shooting Saturday at Brown University.

“Violence rooted in hatred leaves lasting wounds,” she wrote on Facebook. “We in Congress must take action to address our gun laws and these unfathomable attacks which continue to occur.”

Hundreds gathered for Hanukkah festival

The violence erupted at the end of a hot summer day when thousands had flocked to Bondi Beach, including hundreds who had gathered for the Chanukah by the Sea event celebrating the start of the eight-day Hanukkah festival.

Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach centers around the world and sponsors public events during major Jewish holidays, identified one of the dead as Rabbi Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and a key organizer of the event.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed the death of an Israeli citizen, but gave no further details.

Police said emergency services were called to Campbell Parade in Bondi about 6:45 p.m. responding to reports of shots being fired. Video footage filmed by onlookers showed people in bathing suits running from the water as shots rang out. Separate footage appeared to show two men with long guns firing from a footbridge leading to the beach.

One dramatic clip broadcast on Australian television showed a man appearing to tackle and disarm one of the gunmen, before pointing the man’s weapon at him, then setting the gun on the ground.

Minns called the unidentified man a “genuine hero.”

Antisemitic attacks have roiled Australia

Australia, a country of 28 million people, is home to about 117,000 Jews, according to official figures. Antisemitic incidents, including assaults, vandalism, threats and intimidation, surged more than threefold in the country during the year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel launched a war on Hamas in Gaza in response, the government’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reported in July.

Throughout last summer, the country was rocked by a spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. Synagogues and cars were torched, businesses and homes graffitied and Jews attacked in those cities, where 85% of the nation’s Jewish population lives.

Albanese in August blamed Iran for two of the attacks and cut diplomatic ties to Tehran. The authorities didn’t make such claims about Sunday’s massacre.

Israel urged Australia’s government to address crimes targeting Jews. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he warned Australia’s leaders months ago in a letter about the dangers of failing to take action against antisemitism. He claimed Australia’s decision — in line with scores of other countries — to recognize a Palestinian state “pours fuel on the antisemitic fire.”

“Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia ... and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” Netanyahu said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Australia’s government should “fight against the enormous wave of antisemitism which is plaguing Australian society.”

Shooting deaths in Australia are rare

Mass shootings in Australia are extremely rare. A 1996 massacre in the Tasmanian town of Port Arthur, where a lone gunman killed 35 people, prompted the government to drastically tighten gun laws and made it much more difficult for Australians to acquire firearms.

Significant mass shootings this century included two murder-suicides with death tolls of five people in 2014, and seven in 2018, in which gunmen killed their own families and themselves.

In 2022, six people were killed in a shootout between police and Christian extremists at a rural property in Queensland state.

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McGuirk reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Graham-McLay from Wellington, New Zealand. Associated Press writer Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.