‘We were just sitting ducks’: How the chaos unfolded on Bondi Beach
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. SYDNEY—Arsen Ostrovsky’s wife and two young daughters were getting ready for the lighting of Hanukkah candles at Sydney’s scenic Bondi Beach on Sunday evening when Ostrovsky wandered off to get some food from a nearby stall. Then, at around 6:45 p.m., shots rang out.
Ostrovsky immediately turned back to rush to his family. But “there was such chaos," he said, with bodies falling everywhere in a hail of bullets. He got hit, and went down, too.
Wounded, Ostrovsky desperately tried calling his wife to check on her and their two daughters, ages 4 and 8, but was unable to get through. For the next 15 minutes, he was unsure of their fates. The carnage that unfolded at one of Sydney’s most iconic locations was unlike anything the country had seen in decades.
A local man, identified by authorities as Ahmed el Ahmed, helped end it when he rushed one of the two assailants and wrestled the man’s weapon away. Police ultimately shot and killed that shooter. The other suspect was wounded and taken to a hospital under police guard.
Officials haven’t named the suspects. The violence stunned a country that has strict firearms regulations and had low gun crime in recent decades. For Australian Jews, it was confirmation of what many believe has been a rising tide of antisemitism since the most recent Israel-Hamas war began, including a 2024 firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue.
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