Bondi seashore hero Ahmed Al-Ahmed breaks silence from hospital mattress with a message for Australia

Ahmed Al-Ahmed, the Syrian-born hero who was badly injured after tackling one of the armed Bondi Beach terrorists has spoken about his ordeal from his hospital bed.

Incredible footage captured the moment Mr Al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old father of two daughters, aged six and seven, grabbed terrorist Sajid Akram from behind and wrestled away the man’s firearm.

The gunman then fell backward to the ground as Mr Al-Ahmed lifted the rifle, aiming its barrel toward the disarmed shooter but not firing.

Akram backed away as Mr Al-Ahmed rested the gun against a tree before a second bystander rushed the shooter and threw an object at him.

The altercation took place in view of the second alleged gunman, Akram’s 24-year-old son, Naveed, who looked on from a nearby footbridge, gun in hand.

Naveed was rushed to hospital under police guard with critical injuries, while his father was shot and killed by police at the scene.

Mr Al-Ahmed, a 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 the gunman and remains in care at St George Hospital.

 Speaking for the first time from his hospital bed to TRT World, Mr Al Ahmed said he ‘appreciated the efforts of everyone’.

‘May Allah reward you and grant well-being,’ he said in Arabic, while being wheeled away in a hospital bed as a nurse appeared to guide him.

‘Through Allah, I went through a very difficult phase, only Allah knows it,’ he continued.

‘I ask my mother, the apple of my eye, to pray for me. Pray for me, my mother.

‘God willing, it will be a minor injury.

‘Pray for me that Allah eases our situation, and deliver us from this hardship.’ 

 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.’

Mr Issa said doctors had yet to remove a bullet from the back of Mr Al-Ahmed’s shoulder as of Monday night, describing the injury as ‘weird.’

‘Given the fact that he was facing the shooter, how did he get a bullet in the back of his shoulder? It’s strange,’ Mr Issa said.

There are fears that Mr Al-Ahmed could lose his arm.

‘He said he’d do it again,’ Mr Issa said.

‘But the pain has started to take a toll on him. He’s not well at all. He’s riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment.’

Fifteen innocent people were killed in Sunday night’s mass shooting including a ten-year-old girl, with dozens more left seriously injured.

The terrifying shooting unfolded as hundreds gathered to attend the Hanukkah by the Sea event, marking the first day of the Jewish celebration. 

After Australia’s worst mass shooting since the 1993 Port Arthur massacre, a shocked nation has found some inspiration in the Mr Al-Ahmed’s bravery to tackle an armed gunman.

Before he rushed the gunman from behind, he had asked his cousin to pass on a message to his family because he feared it might cost him his life, cousin Jozay Alkanj said.

‘He said: ‘I’m going to die – please see my family and tell them that I went down to save people’s lives’,’ Alkanj told The Sydney Morning Herald. 

Another cousin, Mustafa al-Assad, asked Mr Al-Ahmed how he had mustered the will to take on the gunman. 

‘God gave me courage,’ al-Ahmed replied. 

‘When he saw this scene, people dying of gunfire, he told me, “I couldn’t bear this. God gave me strength. I believe I’m going to stop this person killing people”,’ he said.

Mr Al-Ahmed, a Muslim man, arrived in Sydney more than a decade ago from Syria on a student visa. 

After his battle for citizenship was heard at the Federal Court, he was granted citizenship in 2022. 

He has run the Cigara tobacconist and specialist convenience store in Sutherland, in Sydney’s southern suburbs, since 2021. 

Mr Al-Ahmed’s mother has said she couldn’t stop crying when she found out her son was the hero who had saved countless lives at Bondi Beach. 

‘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.’ 

His father Muhammad Fateh al-Ahmed said the religion of those injured, Jewish worshippers celebrating Hanukkah, was irrelevant to his son.

‘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,’ he told reporters.

‘He doesn’t discriminate between one nationality and another. Especially here in Australia, there’s no difference between one citizen and another.’ 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns said the heroism provided some hope in a time of darkness.

‘We have seen Australians today run towards danger in order to help others. These Australians are heroes and their bravery has saved lives,’ Albanese told reporters.

Minns said Mr Al-Ahmed was a ‘genuine hero’ at a press conference late on Sunday, adding there was ‘no doubt’ he saved many lives.

‘I think it’s worth remembering that in all of this evil, in all of this sadness, there are still wonderful, brave Australians that are prepared to risk their lives to help a complete stranger,’ he said.

Mr Al-Ahmed even received praise for his actions from US President Donald Trump.

‘In Australia, as you’ve probably read, there’s been a very, very brave person who went and attacked frontally one of the shooters. He saved a lot of lives, a very brave person who is right now in the hospital, pretty seriously wounded. I have great respect for the man who did that.’  

A GoFundMe campaign for Mr Al-Ahmed has so far raised close to a $2million,  including $100,000 from US billionaire Bill Ackman.