Survivors tell how family Hannukkah event with donuts and music descended into hellish bloodbath on Bondi Beach

The Hannukkah event on Bondi Beach was just getting into the swing of things.

Vendors handed out free donuts, children carrying balloons with their faces painted ran and laughed in the sand as music filled the air.

A flyer promoting the decades-long tradition promised: ‘Come celebrate the light of Chanukah together with the community. Bring your friends, bring the family lets fill Bondi with joy and light!’

Others waited for the giant menorah to become the first on the globe to be lit thanks to the timezone, when what was first thought to be fireworks broke the peace.

But it was two gunmen who unleashed hell with sawn-off shotguns and a bolt-action rifle, killing at least 16 including a Holocaust survivor, a child and a British rabbi at 6.45pm.

Thousands fled in all directions, mothers hid behind their buggies, children clutched their soft toys wailing as pet dogs wandered around in the confusion. People shouted ‘get down’ as bullets ripped overhead one man can be heard telling his mother ‘I love you’ over the phone.

An elderly couple can be seen circling around a van to avoid the attentions of one of the shooters firing at random just metres away.

An antisemitism campaigner whose head was grazed by a terrorist’s bullet is one of dozens of survivors of the Bondi Beach attack.

Arsen Ostrovsky, an international human rights lawyer, was at the family event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach when two gunmen opened fire.

One gunman was interrupted when a middle-aged man heroically charged him and wrestled what appears to be a shotgun from him.

Backing away and dropping his spectacles in shock, he rejoined his accomplice on an elevated bridge before both were neutralised by police.

‘It was an absolute bloodbath’

Mr Ostrovsky had moved to Australia from Israel just two weeks ago to lead the Sydney office of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

He revealed he was millimetres from being killed during the attack, saying on X: ‘I lived through October 7th. Never imagined I’d see this horror in Australia.

‘Bullet grazed my head. Doctors said it was a miracle I survived, but I will make a recovery.’

Earlier, he told 9News: ‘Children, kids at a festival, playing and then all of a sudden it’s absolute chaos. There’s gunfire, everywhere, people ducking, it was absolute chaos.

‘We didn’t know what was happening, where the gunfire was coming from.’

He said he had lived in Israel for 13 years and survived the October 7, 2023 attacks. 

‘We’ve lived through worse, we’re gonna get through this, and we’re going to get the bastards who did this,’ he said. 

‘I saw at least one gunman … firing randomly and in all directions.

‘I saw children fall to the floor, I saw elderly, I saw invalids, it was an absolute bloodbath.

‘October 7, that’s the last time I saw this. I never thought I’d see this in Australia, not in my lifetime, on Bondi Beach of all places, this iconic place.’ 

The pro-Israel activity posted a picture of his face soaked in blood and bandaged up.

Tourist who saw gun pointed directly at him

One French beachgoer described coming face to face with death after getting caught up in the terror attack.

The tourist, who had been in Australia for two days, recalled: ‘I went to Bondi Beach… I saw two men with mini snipers shooting… “boom boom”.’

‘One man with a gun aimed at me.’

The Frenchmen ducked and took cover behind a car as the shooter continued to fire live rounds.

Speaking to Australian press, he recalled emergency services and helping a pregnant woman.

‘My heart is dead today. I am scared to go to Bondi Beach,’ he added.

Sunday afternoon party that left people with their ‘brain blown out’

A refugee who came to Australia for a better life said he was barbecuing on the beach when the gunmen opened fire.

Vladimir Kotlyar, a Jewish chaplain, said beachgoers were dancing and eating sweets during a normal Sunday afternoon when bullets reigned down.

He recalled falling on top of his eight-year-old son when an injured man fell on top of him.

Describing the ‘indiscriminate’ shooting of the terrorists, he told 7NEWS: ‘Whatever they can get. Old people, young people, brains blown out. Just like in the movies.

‘They were shooting us like we were the enemy. This is Bondi. This is Australia.’

He immediately rushed to help the injured but Mr Kotlyar saw many people already dead with ‘their brains blown out on the ground’.

Among the injured were also children, the refugee from the Soviet Union said.

He said: ‘This is not the country I came [to] here 30 years ago, it’s not. I left [the] Soviet Union as a refugee. I came here as a refugee. Just to get that.’

Hero fruit seller risked life to save others

Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, was named by family as the man who wrestled one of the gunmen to the ground before aiming it back at the attacker forcing him to retreat.

Mr al Ahmed, a Muslim father-of-two with no gun experience, was passing Bondi Beach when he heard the shooting erupt.

The fruit seller was shot twice by the other suspect after he snuck up on one of the gunmen and managed to disarm him.

‘He’s in hospital and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside,’ his cousin Mustafa told 7News.

‘We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero 100 percent.

‘He was shot once in his arm and again in his hand. I’m still waiting to see him.’

In a video after the attack, Ahmed appears to be receiving first aid. He is coherent in the video and can be seen speaking to responders as they tend to his wounds.

Jess the hero shot protecting a stranger’s toddler

Two terrified parents told how their three-year-old daughter vanished in the chaos.

They eventually found her underneath a woman who had been shot called Jess.

Her father told reporters: ‘There was blood all over her. She had been shot. She said “I’ve got your daughter I’ve been protecting her.”

‘I saw the blood and I was petrified but she just said “sorry that’s not her blood, that’s my blood. I took her number I said you saved my daughter I’m indebted to you for the rest of my life.’

Jess was taken to hospital but the lady next to her was ‘lifeless’, he added with families left like ‘sitting ducks’ for the shooters.

Naveed Akram, from Bonnyrigg in Sydney’s south-west, has been named as one of the suspected gunmen, a law enforcement source confirmed to ABC News.

Two individuals armed with guns opened fire on a crowd in the Archer Park area of Bondi Beach at 6.47pm local time on Sunday, New South Wales Police said.

Some witnesses reported more than 30 shots.

The attack has been declared a terrorist incident targeting a Hanukkah celebration at a park next to the beach on the first day of the Jewish festival of lights, the force confirmed.

In a heroic act, a bystander was filmed wrestling a firearm from a man.

A clip showed the moment a civilian took matters into his own hands and lunged at the attacker, seizing his weapon and pointing it back at him.

Australian PM Anthony Albanese condemned the attack as ‘an act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism’.

He said: ‘There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear, we will eradicate it.

‘Amidst this vile act of violence and hate will emerge a moment of national unity where Australians across the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish faith at this dark moment for our nation.

‘Our police and security agencies are working to determine anyone associated with this outrage.’

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the scenes were ‘deeply shocking and distressing’ and urged Britons in Sydney to follow the advice of local authorities.

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