By Grace Crivellaro, Tess Ikonomou and Andrew Brown in Canberra
The prime minister has set up an emergency meeting of state and territory leaders following the Bondi terror attacks in which 16 people died.
Hundreds of people had gathered at Bondi Beach in Sydney for an event to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, when gunmen opened fire on the crowd.
Sixteen people have been killed, including a 10-year-old girl, with at least 42 others injured.
Authorities say the incident was a deliberate attack on the Jewish community.
The national security committee, made up of the prime minister, senior ministers and representatives from AFP and ASIO, will meet on Monday afternoon.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will later hold a national cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders.
Mr Albanese said the day “should be a joyous celebration and the Jewish community are hurting today” and that Australians stand with them.
“What we saw yesterday was an act of pure evil, an act of anti-Semitism, an act of terrorism on our shores in an iconic Australian location,” he told reporters on Monday.
Mr Albanese did not directly respond to criticisms from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who accused the government of “doing nothing to stop the spread of anti-Semitism in Australia”.
Special envoy against anti-Semitism Jillian Segal said the messaging and education about Jewish hatred and how it harmed the community has not been sufficient.
“Unfortunately, I have to say that I’ve been holding my breath, fearing that something like this would happen, because it hasn’t come without warning,” she told ABC radio.
Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dvir Abramovich said what happened at Bondi was a deadly terrorist massacre.
“A Hanukkah celebration was turned into a killing field. This is not just a crime scene. It is a national trauma,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
“Families and children who came to light candles were met with murder.
“Jews were hunted and killed because they were Jewish, in public, in Australia, in full view of a society that had been warned.”
The prime minister said today was a moment for national unity and vowed to stamp out anti-Semitism.
Labor MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, said legislative responses were not the only means for stamping out anti-Semitism, and that there had been a legitimisation of targeting institutions and the community.
“This is something that, especially on the progressive side of politics, we need to confront head on,” he told the ABC.
Former Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the terror attack is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions and criticised the prime minister’s “hollow words”.
“Who is going to be accountable for this? Who is going to take personal responsibility for this,” he told Sky News.
“It starts with our prime minister, and it goes down through his ministers and everybody of responsibility, who has failed in their public duty to protect our citizens.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong spoke to her Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa’ar, who told her of Israel’s “pain and sorrow over the deadly anti-Semitic terrorist attack”.
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