Hero of Bondi seaside pictured recovering in hospital as his dad and mom converse of their pleasure
Hailed as a real-life hero, 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al-Ahmed, an Australian citizen originally from Syria, was shot multiple times as he bravely tackled and disarmed a gunman during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre
Hailed as a real-life hero, Ahmed al-Ahmed, the 43-year-old fruit shop owner who bravely tackled and disarmed the gunman during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah massacre, has been pictured recovering. The Australian citizen, originally from Syria’s Idlib province, was shot multiple times by risking his life to save countless others,
Al Ahmed was photographed recovering from his first surgery at St George Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Chris Minns, the leader of the New South Wales Labor Party, was pictured alongside, visiting the brave man.
“Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk,” Minns wrote on Instagram.
He added: “There is no doubt that more lives would have been lost if not for Ahmed’s selfless courage.” Al Ahmed was identified as the bystander who was filmed tackling and disarming one of the assailants during the horrific shooting that killed 15 people and injured at least 27, at the Hanukkah celebration in Bondi Beach, Sydney on Sunday (December 14).
Video shared on social media captures al Ahmed in a parking lot, sprinting toward one of the gunmen armed with a long rifle. Al Ahmed tackles the attacker, manages to wrestle the rifle from his grasp, and then turns the weapon back on the suspect.
The unarmed gunman stumbles and seems to retreat toward a bridge, where the second assailant is positioned. The footage concludes with al Ahmed setting the rifle on the ground, leaning it against a tree.
On Monday (December 15), Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Ahmed al-Ahmed’s identity. He said: “Ahmed al-Ahmed took the gun off that perpetrator at great risk to himself and suffered serious injury as a result of that, and is currently going through an operation today in hospital.”
He continued: “At the best of times, what we see is Australians coming together. And what I want is for Australians to come together, for this to be reinforcing the need for us to promote national unity, and that is critical.
“There is no place in Australia for anti-Semitism. There is no place for hatred.”
A relative of al-Ahmed, who identified himself as Mustafa Asad, told the Australian television news service 7News that al-Ahmed was shot twice during the incident. Asad said: “He’s in hospital, and we don’t know exactly what’s going on inside.
“We do hope he will be fine. He’s a hero, 100 percent.”
In a separate interview with the Al Araby television network, Asad explained that al-Ahmed “is an Australian citizen of Syrian origin, from Idlib in Syria, from the village of Nayrab”. He described al-Ahmed as someone who would not hesitate to step in to stop death and suffering, Al Jazeera reported.
“He couldn’t bear to see people dying,” Asad told the television station. “It was a humanitarian action.”
When al-Ahmed tackled and wrested a gun from an alleged shooter at Bondi beach, he was simply thinking that he “couldn’t bear to see people dying”, one of his family members said, the Guardian reported.
Jozay, a cousin of al-Ahmed, said he was recovering from his first surgery and had two more to come. “He took a lot of medication, he can’t speak well,” Jozay said, as per the Guardian.
Speaking to ABC News, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmed, the brave man’s father, said: “My son is a hero. He served in the police, he has the passion to defend people.”
The family only arrived in Sydney from Syria a few months ago, having been separated from their son since he first moved to Australia in 2006. Al-Ahmed’s mother, Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmed, told ABC she was worried when she got the call about her son’s injuries.
“I kept beating myself up and crying,” she said. “He saw they were dying, and people were losing their lives, and when that guy [the shooter] ran out of ammo, he took it from him, but he was hit.
“We pray that God saves him.” According to his parents, al-Ahmed was simply enjoying a coffee with a friend in Bondi when chaos erupted. They insist he would have risked everything to protect anyone in danger.
“When he did what he did, he wasn’t thinking about the background of the people he’s saving, the people dying in the street,” his father explained. “He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another.
“Especially here in Australia, there’s no difference between one citizen and another.” Lubaba Alhmidi AlKahil, media director for the Australians for Syria Association, paid al-Ahmed a visit in hospital on Monday, bringing food and flowers as he recovered from surgery.
She said, “What he did, he really is a superhero.” AlKahil had reportedly never met al-Ahmed before the incident but said the Syrian community was “very proud” of his actions.
“You might not believe it, but while we were watching the news, a lot of us had the feeling that he looks Syrian, he looks really Syrian,” she said, the Guardian reported. “Then we found, he is Syrian.”
She further stated: “As Muslims, every time there’s an attack we say to ourselves, oh no, people will say it’s Muslims that are bad. We are scared to leave our houses if we’ll be accused.
“But our religion is a religion of peace and we are very peaceful people. This proves that.”
Central Synagogue rabbi Levi Wolff also praised al-Ahmed’s heroic actions. He said: “Grateful beyond words.”
He continued: “I mean that man,I’d like to invite him to come to my synagogue.” He added: “I want someone like that to be put on a pedestal.
“And btw, I believe he’s of Arabic background, and that’s phenomenal. And I think that he would be a great role model to so many in his community.
“Because if people would see what he does, but actually act like he does, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
The Bondi Beach shooting, what happened
Bondi Beach was rocked by terror on December 14 when gunmen opened fire during a packed Hanukkah celebration hosted by Chabad of Bondi, turning a festive gathering at Archer Park playground into a scene of carnage. The massacre unfolded in the late afternoon as families and children enjoyed the Jewish holiday.
Police quickly declared the atrocity a terrorist attack, with world leaders and media outlets condemning it as a vile act of antisemitism. 16 people tragically lost their lives, including a child and one of the two suspected gunmen. The second shooter, believed to be the son of the other attacker, was swiftly apprehended by police after a heroic bystander managed to wrestle a firearm away from him.
The shocking incident is now the second-deadliest mass shooting in Australian history, surpassed only by the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, and stands as the nation’s deadliest terror attack to date. Naveed Akram and his father Sajid, were named as the attackers in Sunday’s mass shooting, practised extensively at a government-run shooting range, according to sources.
The pair also stored firearms, ammunition, and improvised explosives in an Airbnb close to Bondi Beach, 7News also reported. They had told their family they were going on a fishing trip in Jervis Bay, 200km south of Sydney, before the attack.
Their home in Bonnyrigg, 35kms west of Bondi, was raided by police hours after the massacre. Speaking as officers surrounded their home, Naveed’s mother, Verena, insisted her son is “a good boy”.
Social media posts from an Islamic centre in Australia show Naveed completed religious studies in 2022, raising questions about possible radicalisation and extremist networks operating in the country.
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