Survivors tell how Hannukkah was bloodbath on Bondi Beach | News World

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

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

A flyer promoting the decades-long tradition promised: ‘Come have a good time the sunshine of Chanukah along with the community. Bring your pals, bring the family lets fill Bondi with joy and light-weight!’

Others waited for the large menorah to develop into the primary on the globe to be lit because of the timezone, when what was first considered fireworks broke the peace.

However it was two gunmen who unleashed hell with sawn-off shotguns and a bolt-action rifle, killing at the very least 12 including a Holocaust survivor and a British rabbi at 6.45pm local time.

Hundreds fled in all directions because the terrorists fired at random into the group.

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

Arsen Ostrovsky, a world human rights lawyer, was on 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 each were neutralised by police.

‘It was an absolute bloodbath’

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

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

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

Earlier, he told 9News: ‘Children, kids at a festival, playing after which hastily it’s absolute chaos. There’s gunfire, in all places, 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 the very least one gunman … firing randomly and in all directions.

‘I saw children fall to the ground, 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 professional-Israel activity posted an image of his face soaked in blood and bandaged up.

Tourist who saw gun pointed directly at him

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

The tourist, who had been in Australia for 2 days, recalled: ‘I went to Bondi Beach… I saw two men with mini snipers shooting… “boom boom”.’

‘One man with a gun geared toward me.’

The Frenchmen ducked and took cover behind a automotive because the shooter continued to fireplace live rounds.

Chatting with Australian press, he recalled emergency services and helping a pregnant woman.

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

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

A refugee who got here to Australia for a greater 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 traditional 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’ll get. Old people, young people, brains blown out. Similar to in the flicks.

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

He immediately rushed to assist the injured but Mr Kotlyar saw many individuals already dead with ‘their brains blown out on the bottom’.

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

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

Hero fruit seller risked life to avoid wasting others

Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, was named by family as the person who wrestled certainly one of the gunmen to the bottom before aiming it back on 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 opposite suspect after he snuck up on certainly one of the gunmen and managed to disarm him.

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

‘We do hope he shall be high quality. He’s a hero one hundred pc.

‘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’s coherent within the video and may be seen talking to responders as they have an inclination to his wounds.

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

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

Some witnesses reported greater than 30 shots.

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

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

A clip showed the moment a civilian took matters into his own hands and lunged on 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 such thing as a place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear, we’ll 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 find out anyone related to this outrage.’

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

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