{"id":225437,"date":"2026-01-07T13:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/225437\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T13:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:52:17","slug":"israeli-man-critically-injured-in-sydney-terror-attack-to-return-h","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/225437\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli man critically injured in Sydney terror attack to return h"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biton, who had been working in Australia for the past three years on a temporary visa, arrived at a Hanukkah candle-lighting event at the beach last month with a close friend. He initially fled after terrorists opened fire, killing 15 people, but moments later decided to confront the attackers and ran to the spot where Syrian immigrant Ahmed al-Ahmed was charging one of them.<\/p>\n

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2 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d2\u05e4\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d2\u05e4\u05df<\/p>\n

Gefen Biton was critically wounded in the deadly terror attack at Bondi Beach<\/p>\n

In footage shot by an amateur photographer and aired on a local Australian television channel, Biton is seen running toward one of the terrorists before being shot. He was wounded in the abdomen and, after falling to the ground, was shot again in the pelvic area. His friend was unable to find him amid the chaos, and at the same time Biton\u2019s sister received a phone call from him in which he could be heard shouting, \u201cThey shot me, they shot me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So far, Biton has undergone eight surgeries during his hospitalization in Australia. Local Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke visited Biton on Tuesday and informed him of the decision to grant him permanent residency. \u201cGefen is a hero. Without thinking for a moment about his own personal safety, he ran to help (fight against) Ahmed al-Ahmed,\u201d the Australian minister told Britain\u2019s Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

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2 View gallery <\/p>\n

\"\u05d2\u05e4\u05df<\/a>\"\u05d2\u05e4\u05df<\/p>\n

Gefen Biton runs to confront the shooter at Bondi Beach<\/p>\n

(Photo: thenewdaily)<\/p>\n

Referring to the decision, Burke said: \u201cOf all the things he is now dealing with, at least this gives him one less challenge to worry about. I told him Australia is a better place with him here, and he is welcome to continue to come here for the rest of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An Israeli with a big heart\u2019<\/p>\n

Tom Cohen, an Israeli who has lived in Australia for six years, stayed by Biton\u2019s side at the hospital. After the attack, Cohen said, \u201cit took us three hours to find him at St. Vincent\u2019s Hospital. Until then, we were constantly on the phone trying to understand what had happened. We tried to cover it from every angle. We quickly realized he was listed as anonymous because he wasn\u2019t answering his phone and, as far as we knew, he didn\u2019t have any documents on him. When one of us arrived at St. Vincent\u2019s, he tried calling Gefen again and his phone was on the reception desk in front of him. It turns out they didn\u2019t understand his name when he told it to them, so they recorded a different name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gefen Biton seen charging Ahmed al-Ahmed during the attack in Sydney<\/p>\n

(Photo: from 9news)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Cohen added that \u201cit took several hours before they updated us on his condition, probably so as not to alarm us, and when they realized the situation was complex and that his family was in Israel, they told one of the friends that he was in critical condition and in the operating room.\u201d After two days of long flights, Biton\u2019s father arrived in Australia and reunited with his son and close friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heroic act didn\u2019t surprise us, because that\u2019s Gefen. He is our candle, our light this holiday. We love him and are physically embracing his father here. We are worried, but we choose to look at his act with pride. In the end, he is a simple Israeli with a big heart who ran to save locals he didn\u2019t even know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Biton, who had been working in Australia for the past three years on a temporary visa, arrived at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-225437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}