How Bondi fought again: The fearless women and men who risked the whole lot confronting ISIS-inspired gunmen – as they’re praised for being ‘the most effective of humanity’

It was the worst mass shooting Australia has seen in three decades, brutally targetting members of the Jewish community as they gathered on Bondi Beach to light the menorah, marking the start of the festival of Hanukkah. 

At 6.47pm local time on Sunday, New South Wales Police received the first reports that shots had been fired at Archer Park next to the popular beach, packed with thousand of civilians. 

Fifteen people were killed during the massacre, including Holocaust survivor Alexander Kleytman, London-born rabbi Eli Schlanger, and a 10-year-old girl called Matilda.

The alleged gunmen were 50-year-old Sajid Akram, who was shot by police and died at the scene, and his 24-year-old son Naveed, who suffered critical injuries and was taken to hospital. 

Australian Prime Minister Albanese said the attack appeared to be ‘motivated by Islamic State ideology’ after police recovered ISIS flags and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the suspects’ car. 

Throughout the killing spree, several members of the public – from pregnant mothers to local lifeguards – showed enormous courage, putting themselves in harm’s way to save fellow civilians.

Many of their extraordinary acts of bravery were captured on video, earning them the title ‘Bondi heroes’. 

Some citizens even paid with their lives while trying to help others, including a husband and wife about to celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary, and a father who migrated to Australia from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s for safety.

‘I saw incredible acts of bravery,’ said NSW Liberal leader and Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane, praising community members, first responders and ‘our heroes from surf clubs’ for helping the wounded.

She gave a special mention to Ahmed al-Ahmed, currently in hospital after valiantly wrestling and disarming one of the gunmen. 

‘That gentleman that turned up and took down the attacker is a national hero. We saw the absolute worst of humanity, but we also saw the best in that man.’ 

One man who has been particularly noted for his exceptional heroism is Mr Ahmed, who was caught on video tackling a gun from Sajid, one of the shooters.

He was hailed as a shining example of ‘Australians coming together’ at a press conference on Monday by Australia’s prime minister.

‘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 operations today in hospital,’ Albanese said. 

Video footage shows the 43-year-old father of two daughters, aged six and seven, grabbing the terrorist from behind and wrestling away the man’s firearm. 

Sajid fell to the ground as Mr Ahmed lifted the rifle, aiming its barrel toward the disarmed 50-year-old, but not firing.

Former Australian Federal Police officer Dr John Coyne said on Tuesday that Mr Ahmed’s decision not to pull the trigger was due to his humanity.

‘It’s not like the movies. This is a guy who literally sacrificed, or was willing to sacrifice, himself to save lives,’ he told the Daily Mail.

‘To take another life where there was no immediate danger to his own, that would have been a terribly difficult split-second decision.

‘I think it shows a deep humanity to not do that, to not be caught in the emotions. He made real decisions and I take my hat off to him.’

The Syrian-born tobacconist owner has been widely praised for his heroism, but it came at a significant personal cost. 

He was shot in the shoulder and arm while hiding behind a tree after confronting Sajid, and remains in care at St George Hospital.

His former migration lawyer Sam Issa, who visited him on Monday, told The Australian that his injuries are worse than first thought.

‘He’s having multiple surgeries, he’s got five gunshot wounds. It’s a serious injury – far more serious than has been reported.

‘At this stage, he says he has no feeling in his arm. I’m no medical doctor but he said to me that it seems like one of the bullets may have hit a nerve.’

She said doctors had yet to remove a bullet from the back of Mr Ahmed’s shoulder as of Monday night.

His parents, Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmed and Malakeh Hasan al-Ahmed, told ABC news their son was shot four to five times in his shoulder during the altercation.

‘My son is a hero. He served in the police, he has the passion to defend people,’ his father told ABC.

Mr Ahmed’s mother told the ABC she kept ‘beating myself up and crying’ when she received the call her son had been shot.

‘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,’ she said. ‘We pray that God saves him.’

The hero had been having a coffee with a friend in Bondi when he heard the shots ring out.

His cousin, Mustafa al-Asaad, told the Al Araby television network that Ahmed intervened as a ‘humanitarian act’.

‘When he saw people dying and their families being shot, he couldn’t bear to see people dying,’ he said.

‘It was a humanitarian act, more than anything else. It was a matter of conscience … He’s very proud that he saved even one life.’

Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife Sofia, 61, were tragically gunned down when they bravely confronted one of the shooters and prevented him from opening fire.

Dramatic dashcam footage shows the moment the fearless Mr Gurman tackled gunman Sajid on Campbell Parade in Bondi, as he emerged from his vehicle which had an ISIS flag draped over the front windscreen.

The husband then bravely pushed the 50-year-old to the ground and wrestled a gun from his grasp.

The couple then spent a few minutes battling the older shooter before he was able to grab a second firearm, and they were tragically gunned down on the sidewalk next to the vehicle.

Heartbreaking pictures of the crime scene circulating in the aftermath of the massacre showed how Mrs Gurman died while laying over her husband.

‘We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman,’ the family said.

‘They had been married for 34 years, with their 35th wedding anniversary approaching in January. We were looking forward to celebrating Sofia’s 62nd birthday on Wednesday 17th of December.’

The footage was posted to social media by a Sydney resident whose dashcam unexpectedly caught the altercation.

‘Such civilian heroes shouldn’t be forgotten,’ she wrote on the post. ‘I’m truly heartbroken.’

Later footage, captured from a drone, shows the couple lying together on the pavement, seemingly motionless.

On a nearby footbridge, Naveed, the other alleged gunman, can be seen firing ammunition at civilians. 

‘Boris was a retired mechanic, known for his generosity, quiet strength and willingness to lend a hand to anyone in need. 

‘Sofia worked at Australia Post and was deeply loved by her colleagues and community,’ the couple’s family said.

‘Bondi locals, together they lived honest, hard-working lives and treated everyone they met with kindness, warmth and respect. 

‘Boris and Sofia were devoted to their family and to each other. They were the heart of our family, and their absence has left an immeasurable void.’

A family friend told the Daily Mail the couple’s son, who lives overseas, had been in the country for the past few weeks visiting his parents. 

The friend said Mrs Gurman was due to celebrate her 62nd birthday on Wednesday. 

It is understood that the Gurmans are Russian Jews from the Soviet Union, who have lived in Australia for decades.

‘Many people may not know that at the very beginning of the incident, two individuals were among the first to identify the gunman and bravely attempted to disarm him,’ a social media user said after seeing the footage.

‘Tragically, they were shot and killed in the process. They were heroes too. They stepped forward in the face of extreme danger.’ 

Reuven Morrison, who served as an assistant at Bondi’s Wellington Street synagogue, put himself in harm’s way when the two gunmen opened fire at the Hannukah event.

Astonishing footage shows the selfless 62-year-old charging at shooter Sajid and launching a brick at him after he was disarmed by hero Ahmed al-Ahmed. 

The killer can be seen running away from the scene before the video comes to an abrupt end. 

It was later confirmed that Mr Morrison was one of the 15 people who lost their lives in Australia’s second deadliest massacre.  

His daughter, Sheina Gutnick, identified her father as the brave man in the video. 

Speaking to CBS news, Ms Gutnick said: ‘From my sources and understanding, he had jumped up the second the shooting started. 

‘He managed to throw bricks … he was screaming at the terrorist, and protecting his community, he was shot dead.’

She continued: ‘If there was one way for him to go on this earth, it would be fighting a terrorist.’

‘There was no other way he would be taken from us. He went down fighting, protecting the people he loved most,’ she added.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Morrison’s best friend Vladimir described how he ‘died in front of me’ following his heroic act. 

Vladimir said he was returning from the Hanukkah celebration to sort out his car when the shooting began.

He described how Morrison tried to ‘get people to get down out of the way and then maybe disarm the shooter on the ground’ before he was gunned down.

‘I was there when he died’, Vladimir said. 

‘He’s a hero. He died a hero trying to save his community and it cost him his life’, Vladmir added. 

Mr Morrison was a businessman who came to Australia from the Soviet Union as a teenager in the 1970s.

He lived between Sydney and Melbourne, where he lived with his wife and daughter. 

‘We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world and the Jews would not be faced with such anti-Semitism in the future, where we can bring up our kids in a safe environment,’ he told ABC a year ago.

Confirming his death, Chabad said that he was a longtime resident of Melbourne, but that he ‘discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney’. 

‘A successful businessman whose main goal was to give away his earnings to charities dear to his heart, notably Chabad of Bondi,’ the organisation wrote on X.

Mr Morrison could be seen in the footage hurling a brick at the Bondi killer just seconds after father-of-two shop owner Mr Ahmed was filmed disarming the gunman. 

A pregnant mother used her body as a human shield to protect a three-year-old girl during the Bondi Beach terror attack.

Vanessa had been watching her three-year-old daughter Gigi dance when suddenly ‘she was gone’. 

After calling her husband Wayne to check if Gigi was with him, she soon realised the toddler was missing and ‘absolute panic’ set in. 

Jess, who is five months pregnant, was also searching for her son after they became separated when she spotted Gigi crying for her parents.

Jess had been at Bondi Beach celebrating Hanukkah with her mum, mother-in-law, husband and their three-year-old son and 18-month-old baby. 

While looking for her son, Jess spotted Gigi in an open area and ran towards her, grabbed her and lay on top, using her body as a human shield. 

‘We stayed still, I laid on top of her and we spoke about how we were going to stay still and calm, and quiet,’ she told Sky News. 

As bullets rang out around them, Jess comforted Gigi, saying: ‘I got you, we are going to stay here and be nice and safe and no one is going to hurt us.’ 

Video showed Jess, with blood dripping down her forehead, shielding a scared Gigi who asked if they could hide, to which she replied: ‘Yes, we can hide baby girl.’

Jess protected Gigi until the ordeal came to an end, with Wayne finding the heroic mother still lying on top of his daughter. 

Both Jess and Vanessa broke down in tears during an emotional reunion on Tuesday.

The family embraced Jess and thanked her for saving their little girl. 

‘Everyone ran for their lives, you ran towards the bullets, to my baby girl. I know she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for [Jess],’ Vanessa said. 

‘What three-year-old knows to duck and take cover?’

Jess said a woman had been fatally shot less than two metres from where she had been lying on the ground with Gigi. 

She said she felt ‘very afraid’ but protecting Gigi was the only thing she could do as she could not find her own son.

‘I’m just a mum and I did what mums do. I saw a little girl and she needed help and I tried to do what I could. I couldn’t help everyone,’ Jess said.

After the shooting stopped, Jess found her son alive and well at the playground with his grandmother.

When the massacre started, hero lifeguard Jackson Doolan sprinted barefoot towards Bondi from neighbouring Tamarama beach, carrying a defibrillator.

On social media, he shared a striking photo of himself running through the streets of Bondi in his lifeguard uniform, and thanked those who responded to the unfolding horror. 

‘Appreciate the messages. I’m safe, all the lifeguards are safe. Speechless… Well done to everyone involved in helping out,’ Mr Doolan wrote.

He was one of numerous lifeguards who attended to wounded victims of the massacre.

The official Bondi Lifeguards social media page also reassured followers that none of their team were injured, confirming they were among the first responders.

‘The lifeguards are safe, they have done an incredible job being first responders on the scene,’ they wrote.

‘I heard someone say “excuse me”, and as I turned I just saw this flash of blue,’ Bondi local Alexandra Ching told the Guardian, describing the moment she saw Mr Doolan sprinting to help the victims.

‘He was just flying past. It was just him running in the direction that everyone was trying to escape from, carrying that big kit and barefoot … He’s running at something that surely every fibre in your being, you know, would tell you to go in the other direction.’

‘Just no hesitation, but just fully pedal to the metal sprinting,’ she added.

Andy Reid, another lifeguard, said Mr Doolan – known as ‘Jacko’ – ran from Tamarama with medical equipment to support the rest of the team at Bondi, as well as assist surf lifesavers, police and ambulance crews treating dozens of victims.

‘I can’t even begin to imagine what you all had to witness and deal with, but you are all the most incredible people’, Mr Reid wrote on Instagram on Monday. 

‘I’m grateful we live in a world where you exist to show that kindness will always conquer evil.’

Prime Minister Albanese said the ‘targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukah, which should be a day of joy … [was] an act of evil antisemitism’.

A 10-year-old child, identified by local media as Matilda, was one of the 15 victims killed in the massacre.

‘Matilda was very friendly, she loves school, and has a lot of friends,’ Matilda’s aunt Lina told ABC News.

‘She’s just a happy kid, always gives me cuddles.’

Matilda was taken to Sydney’s Children’s Hospital at Randwick but lost a lot of blood and could not be saved. 

Her younger sister was present during the attack. Even though she is physically unharmed, she is ‘in absolute shock and stress, she’s missing her sister badly’.

Some 22 people are receiving care in hospitals across Sydney, while nine remain in critical condition. 

Holocaust survivor Alexander Kleytman, who came to Australia from Ukraine, was also killed at the shooting, which he had attended with his children and grandchildren.

‘I have no husband. I don’t know where is his body. Nobody can give me any answer,’ his wife Larisa Kleytman, also a Holocaust survivor, told reporters outside a Sydney hospital late on Sunday.

‘We were standing and suddenly came the “boom boom”, and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me,’ she told the Australian.

Chabad wrote on X that Mr Kleytman ‘died shielding her from the gunman’s bullets. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind two children and 11 grandchildren’.

London-born rabbi Eli Schlanger, 41, was the first victim to be named. 

His youngest child was just two months old. 

Known as the ‘Bondi Rabbi’, Mr Schlanger was one of the key organisers of Sunday’s event.

He was the head of the local Chabad mission, an international Hasidic Jewish organisation based in Brooklyn.

‘My dear cousin, Rabbi Eli Schlanger @bondirabbi was murdered in today’s terrorist attack in Sydney,’ his cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis, wrote on Instagram. 

‘He leaves behind his wife & young children, as well as my uncle & aunt & siblings … He was truly an incredible guy.’