Bondi Beach survivor recalls getting shot while running toward his family

Britt Clennett and Aicha El Hammar Castano, ABC News

December 18, 2025

Community members gather outside of Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on December 15, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Audrey Richardson/Getty Images)

(SYDNEY) -- When shots rang out at a Hanukkah celebration on Australia's Bondi Beach, Arsen Ostrovsky said he thought it could've been balloons popping.

"Because it was the carnival, there were clowns and children's activities," he told ABC News. "But then it was just non-stop, relentless -- so I knew that we were under attack."

As Ostrovsky ran toward his wife and her children, who were exposed and closer to the shooting, he said he felt a bullet strike his head.

"I fell down and I remember saying, 'I'm hit, 'I'm hit,' and the blood just started gushing," Ostrovsky said, with part of his head still bandaged up.

Fifteen people were killed -- including a 10-year-old girl named Matilda and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor -- and more than 40 others were wounded in last weekend's mass shooting at Bondi Beach.

The two gunmen -- who officials say appeared to have been inspired by ISIS -- were allegedly father and son. The father, Sajid Akram, was killed by police at the scene, and the son, Naveed Akram, was wounded and taken into custody. He faces charges, including committing a terrorist act and 15 counts of murder.

When asked if he has anything to say to the gunmen, Ostrovsky -- who was in Israel during Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023 -- said he hopes they face justice and understand they will never succeed in taking away his humanity.

"We've seen the horrors of the last two years in Israel, thinking that we would be coming here to a safe place, and then having to flee for our lives," Ostrovsky said.

Ostrovsky said the actions of people at Bondi Beach, like Ahmed al-Ahmed -- a bystander who was seen on video jumping in and wrestling a gun away from one of the attackers -- and other members of the public who ran toward the danger, have helped him see humanity in the darkness.

People were "running from the surf, coming from shops, running from a beach to help," he said.

"That's what I choose to take," he said.

ABC News' Karson Yiu and James Gillings contributed to this report.