{"id":185661,"date":"2025-12-16T00:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185661\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T00:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T00:49:07","slug":"long-road-to-recovery-for-bondi-mass-shooting-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/185661\/","title":{"rendered":"Long road to recovery for Bondi mass-shooting hero"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hero shop owner<\/a> who disarmed one of the Bondi gunmen by throwing himself at the heavily armed man<\/a> faces a months-long recovery after being shot twice during the massacre on Australia’s most famous beach.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Al Ahmed, the 43-year-old father who bystanders say likely saved many lives when he ripped a gun out of the hands of one of the attackers, underwent surgery in hospital on Monday.<\/p>\n

He’s in pain but accompanied by his family who are equal parts worried and proud of his heroism<\/a>, according to Lubaba Alhmidi Alkahil, who took flowers and food to his hospital room on Monday.<\/p>\n

“I think at least he needs six months to recover… it’s badly damaged,” the media director for the Australians for Syria Association told AAP.<\/p>\n

“He has two daughters, little kids,” she said.<\/p>\n

“When he threw himself on that bad guy… he was just thinking how to save these people.”<\/p>\n

Al Ahmed’s cousin Mustafa Al-Asaad said the bystander-turned-hero was shot in his left shoulder and hand.<\/p>\n

Al-Asaad recounted his cousin, an Australian citizen originally from Syria, telling him that “God granted me courage to jump on the gunman”.<\/p>\n

“He wasn’t thinking of death when he saw bullets flying in the air,” Al Asaad told BBC Arabic overnight.<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Sam Issa, said Al Ahmed didn’t regret his actions in the slightest, despite the pain he was in.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t regret what he did. He said he\u2019d do it again. But the pain has started to take a toll on him,\u201d Issa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not well at all. He\u2019s riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

NSW Premier Chris Minns visited Al Ahmed in hospital on Monday night, praising his “incredible bravery”.<\/p>\n

“There is no doubt that more lives would have been lost if not for Ahmed’s selfless courage,” he said in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n

An online fundraiser to recognise the small business owner for his bravery had raised more than $1 million by Monday evening.<\/p>\n

At the same time, a group of surf lifesavers celebrating at their Christmas parties opened up their doors and first aid kits to help those caught in the crossfire.<\/p>\n

Surf lifesavers at Bondi and North Bondi were in their clubhouses celebrating Christmas when the gunfire erupted outside.<\/p>\n

Multiple volunteers ran out under fire to perform CPR and provide first aid, Surf Life Saving NSW chief executive Steven Pearce said.<\/p>\n

“Surf Life Saving is a frontline emergency service and that was never more important than last night,” he told AAP.<\/p>\n

“There is not a bandage or a Band-Aid left in any of the surf clubs, all the boards were used as stretchers.”<\/p>\n

Video showed what appeared to be a man wrestling a weapon away from a person amid reports of a shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The North Bondi clubhouse had about 200 people sheltering inside and receiving medical attention while the police operation continued, president Steven Lanarch said.<\/p>\n

At least 15 people died and many more were left injured after the gunmen took aim at a crowd gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at the beach just before 7pm on Sunday.<\/p>\n

One of the gunmen, Naveed Akram, 24, is in police custody while the other, his 50-year-old father Sajid, was killed.<\/p>\n

Multiple videos posted to social media show the two gunmen standing on a footbridge connecting Campbell Parade to the Bondi Pavilion and firing shots into a crowd.<\/p>\n

Footage shows Al Ahmed crouching behind a vehicle in the nearby car park, before sneaking up behind a gunman and wrestling the weapon from his grip.<\/p>\n

The altercation sent the shooter staggering to the ground, before he got up and walked towards the pedestrian bridge from which the other gunman continued to fire.<\/p>\n

Leaders hailed the heroes who ran toward danger to stop the attack or help the injured.<\/p>\n

“To the brave first responders, including ordinary citizens who acted yesterday – thank you for what you do,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.<\/p>\n

“People rushing towards danger to show the best of the Australian character.”<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including the Bondi hero speaks about his decision to confront a gunman, and an arrest after a famed Hollywood director is found dead. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hero shop owner who disarmed one of the Bondi gunmen by throwing himself at the heavily armed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,12477,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-185661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-religion","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}