Israel investigating whether Iran involved in deadly Bondi Beach shooting

 Israeli authorities are investigating whether state actors, chiefly Iran, were involved in the mass shooting attack against Sydney’s Jewish community at Bondi Beach on Sunday.

A senior US official told Fox News that if the Islamic Republic ordered the attack, then the US would fully recognize Israel's right to strike Iran in response.

Officials were also probing links to Hezbollah, Hamas, and Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is connected to al-Qaeda.

Iranian Foreign Minister Esmaeil Baghaei condemned the “violent attack.”

“Terror violence and mass killing shall be condemned, wherever they’re committed,” he wrote in a post on X/Twitter, without mentioning Jews, Judaism, or antisemitism.

Israeli intelligence warned that Tehran has been targeting Jewish communities abroad, reportedly smuggling weapons and using social-media cells to incite violence.

At least 11 people were murdered, including Chabad shliach Rabbi Eli Schlanger, and several more were wounded, after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, in southeastern Australia.

Iran's previous attempts to launch attacks on Jews in Australia

In August, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and law-enforcement officials said the Islamic regime of Iran was the mastermind behind at least two major antisemitic arson attacks in Australia and is likely responsible for more incidents.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization had gathered enough intelligence to determine that the Islamic regime directed the December 6 Adass Israel arson attack in Melbourne and the October 20 Lewis’ Continental Kitchen arson attack in Sydney, he said.

“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Albanese said at the time. “They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community.”

Last month, Australia listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism following the intelligence assessment.