The human rights lawyer was hit in the head as two gunmen linked to Islamic State opened fire on a Chanukah gathering on Sunday
December 16, 2025 14:05
A leading human rights lawyer and antisemitism campaigner who miraculously survived the Sydney terror attack described the massacre as “pure evil” and called for urgent action from leaders.
Arsen Ostrovsky is recovering in hospital after he was hit in the head with a bullet during the attack.
Speaking from his hospital room, he told The Wall Street Journal: “It was like triage in a war zone, except it was on Bondi Beach.
“What I saw yesterday was pure evil, just an absolute bloodbath. Bodies strewn everywhere. It was like reliving October 7 all over.
“I never thought it would be possible here in Australia.
“But how many times can we warn that allowing this hate and virulent antisemitism against the Jewish community to continue unchecked, excused or mainstreamed, will directly lead to violence, as we saw so gruesomely yesterday?
“We are long past time for empty condemnations and promises of action. We need urgent leadership, now.”
But he added that he was inspired to see “ordinary Australians risking their lives to rush to help us and offer comfort”.
“This is the real Australia, not the ravenous hate from the murderers and their enablers. As we light the Chanukah candles, we must reiterate that the forces of darkness and hate will never prevail,” he went on.
An Australian television crew interviewed the leading human rights lawyer in the immediate aftermath where he issued a message of defiance against terrorism as his heavily bandaged head wound dripped blood down his face.
He said: “We have lived through worse than this, we’re going to get through this and we’re going to get the b******* that did this.”
Ostrovsky and wife and daughters were among the crowd who flocked to Bondi Beach to join the Chabad-run “Chanukah by the Sea” festival.
He vividly described the chaos which unfolded when father and son shooters Sajid, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, opened fire into the crowd with powerful rifles.
“We didn’t know what was happening, where the gunfire was coming from,” he recalled.
“I saw blood gushing from me. I saw people hit, saw people fall to the ground. My only concern was, where are my kids? Where are my kids? Where’s my wife, where’s my family?”
“I saw at least one gunman firing what looked like a shotgun, shooting randomly in all directions. I saw children falling to the ground, elderly people.”
A bullet grazed his head and doctors described it “a miracle” he had survived.
Ostrovsky, who grew up in Sydney after leaving the Soviet Union as a child, only moved back recently after spending thirteen years working as a human rights lawyer in Israel.
He explained: “We came here only two weeks ago to work with the Jewish community to fight antisemitism, to fight this bloodthirsty, raging hatred, that is why I am here.”
He was visited in hospital by Amir Maimon, the Israeli ambassador to Australia, and Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.
Chikli later posted a heart-warming picture on X of him sharing some Chanukah doughnuts with Ostrovsky.
In his own post, Ostrovsky wrote: “Thank you also Maimon Amir for smuggling some sufganiyot. Still not as good as Israeli, but compared to hospital food, Michelin delicacy!
"On serious note, I also very much appreciate your support and heartfelt words.”
And the recovering survivor also received words of comfort from a former Hamas hostage, recently released from Gaza.
He posted: “I am beyond words. Just received a message of support from Rom Braslavski, who survived over two years of the most unimaginable hell in Hamas captivity.
"He is here in a video with Ricardo Pacifici, a leader in the Italian Jewish community. We are a special people indeed!”
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