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Sydney began 2026 with a fireworks display held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after terrorists killed 15 people at a Hanukkah celebration at the city’s Bondi Beach.

Sydney’s annual New Year’s Eve celebrations are known globally for their spectacular fireworks, with 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretching seven kilometers (four miles) across buildings and barges along its harbor, including the city’s iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

At this year’s ceremony, organizers held a minute of silence for the victims of the attack at 11 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Israel time), with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah projected onto its pylons.

“Right now, the joy that we usually feel at the start of a new year is tempered by the sadness of the old,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a video message.

Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore said ahead of the event: “After a tragic end to the year for our city, we hope that New Year’s Eve will provide an opportunity to come together and look with hope for a peaceful and happy 2026.”

According to ABC Australia, the city had initially planned to project the image of a dove and the word “peace” onto the bridge, but changed the plan at the last minute at the urging of numerous Jewish creatives, who lamented that the lack of “any specific reference to the targeting of the Jewish community, prolongs our erasure and obfuscates the problem of domestic antisemitism,”

Traditional Christmas celebrations at Bondi were likewise muted this year, and several New Year’s events planned there were canceled.

Around 3,000 police, some carrying long arms, were deployed in the city during the main New Year’s celebrations, which typically attract over a million revelers.

“We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime and say that we’re not going to be cowed by this kind of terrorism, and we’re not going to change the way we live our life in our beautiful city,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said.

Father and son terrorists are alleged to have killed 15 people at the Hanukkah event on December 14, Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost three decades, which shocked the nation and stoked fears of rising antisemitism in the country.

Police believe the duo “meticulously planned” the attack for months, and have released pictures showing them training with shotguns in the Australian countryside.

They also recorded a video in October railing against “Zionists” while sitting in front of a flag of the ISIS jihadist group, police have said.

Sajid Akram, 50, was shot and killed by police during the attack. An Indian national, he entered Australia on a visa in 1998.

His 24-year-old son Naveed, an Australian-born citizen, remains in custody, charged with 15 murders and a litany of other serious offenses.

Many have blamed the ruling Labor Party, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, for a lack of action in response to warnings and cries for help from Australian Jews over rising antisemitism in the two years since the start of the war in Gaza.

The prime minister was booed last week at a memorial event.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said last week that she is “desperately sorry” for what Jews have experienced in the country.

“You always regret what more could have been done… We acted, but we have to do more – and we are,” she told the Advertiser tabloid.

Wong cited two areas of reform that the government is focusing on in the wake of the Bondi Beach shooting.

“I think the two aspects of reform that we’re engaging in now are really important, both in terms of gun control, but also we acted on hate speech, but we clearly need to go further,” she said.

Wong condemned the slogans “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — widely interpreted as a call for the wholesale destruction of the State of Israel — and “Globalize the intifada” — widely interpreted as an endorsement of terror attacks.

The foreign minister said she agreed with the Australian antisemitism envoy, who said those slogans “have been used to whip up anger and hatred of the Jewish people.”

Source: The Times of Israel