The deadliest terrorist attack on Australian soil left Ahmed Al Ahmed with a permanent disability, sleepless nights and a fractured family.
He was unaware his split-second decision on December 14, 2025, to tackle one of the gunmen at Bondi Beach would turn his life upside down.
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Looking back at what happened to him over the last year, Mr Al Ahmed found himself struggling to process it all.
“It’s hard to explain, honestly,” he said.
“[With] too many things, around especially with my health, it was very hard to recover, and still today the healing is very slow … I have nerve damage where it’s caused for me all this pain; there’s big damage.
“Physically, mentally it’s not easy. I’m still suffering.“
Ahmed Al Ahmed’s arm has permanent nerve damage. (ABC News: Abu Bakr Sajid)
Despite multiple surgeries, Mr Al Ahmed’s arm was left with permanent nerve damage and limited mobility, causing him chronic pain.
Doctors were able to remove three bullets from his arm, but two remain lodged in his shoulder.
But more than metal, there is a mental trauma he carries with him every day.
Haunting violent memories
Walking back to the scene where it all unfolded, Mr Al Ahmed could not bring himself to climb the footbridge.
“It’s a bad memory,” he said.
The events of that day weigh heavily on Ahmed Al Ahmed as he returns to Bondi. (ABC News: Nabil Al-Nashar)
Mr Al Ahmed, a former business owner from southern Sydney, had been visiting Bondi Beach for a walk with his cousin on the day of the attack.
When the shooting started, they took cover between parked cars near the now infamous northern pedestrian bridge.
“The amount of shooting, the firing … the mind can’t handle it. It’s something like war,”
he said.
“I’m still hearing the kids crying and the women and everyone from there, you know, asking for help.”
Safe behind cover and unseen by the gunmen, Mr Al Ahmed decided to act.
“The decision came as inspiration from God,” he said.
“I said, ‘God, please help me. Oh lord, please aid me to stop this bastard.'”
Ahmed Al Ahmed disarms one of the gunmen.
Ahmed Al Ahmed then points the gun at the shooter.
He leapt from his hiding spot onto one of the gunmen, Sajid Akram, putting him in a chokehold with his right arm while using his left hand to prise away the shotgun.
His manoeuvre worked, forcing the gunman to retreat, at least temporarily.
“[I] started saying you know, ‘Motherf*****, stop, move, leave, leave, leave. I give you two minutes leave,'” he said.
Mr Al Ahmed tried to take cover behind a palm tree but was eventually shot.
“I felt, ‘I’m going to die,’ because of the amount of bleeding, bleeding, bleeding,”
he said.
Hero Ahmed Al Ahmed says he still suffers mentally and physically. (ABC News: Marcus Stimson)
Those violent memories still haunt Mr Al Ahmed’s dreams today.
Sajid Akram was shot dead by police at the scene.
His son, Naveed Akram, faces more than 70 charges, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist attack, over the shooting which took place at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi’s Archer Park.
At least 15 innocent people were killed and dozens more injured.
“They’re [the shooters] not Muslim. Islam is free from this,” he said.
Media circus
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Ahmed Al Ahmed in hospital. (Supplied)
Overnight Mr Al Ahmed’s life came under an intense media spotlight, initially acknowledging his heroics, and even the prime minister paid him a visit in hospital.
Other politicians, including NSW Premier Chris Minns, as well as local and international rabbis visited.
Days after the attack, he was presented with a giant cheque of more than $2.5 million in donations from more than 43,000 donors, to which he said: “I deserve it?”
A GoFundMe fundraiser collected more than $2.5 million for Bondi Beach hero Ahmed Al Ahmed. (Supplied: GoFundMe/mdmotivator)
Weeks later, before the first day’s play at the Sydney Test, the SCG crowd rose to applaud the heroes who saved lives on that day.
The father-of-two was widely praised for his actions. (AAP: Dean Lewins)
In March, Al Ahmed was awarded a symbolic key to the city and a lifetime beach parking pass for his bravery by the Waverley Council, where Bondi Beach is located.
The moment happened before the game began. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)
He was joined by 13 others. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
Addressing the crowd, he said at the time his “heart cries” over the event.
But attention soon shifted to his family, where cracks had started to form.
Ahmed Al Ahmed is gifted the symbolic key. (ABC News)
His father accused him of assault but later dropped the charges, while his two brothers were arrested for allegedly threatening him.
Mr Al Ahmed said some media outlets were unfair to him, exploited him and humiliated him.
“I was hurt a lot,”
he said.
“They [media outlets] focused on personal issues with my family, with my father and my brothers. They tried to smear my reputation.”
Ahmed Al Ahmed had to attend Bankstown Local Court in August. (ABC News: Jamie McKinnell)
Mr Al Ahmed said he wished the media had treated him with more humanity and respect, and avoided his private family life, considering he was still in recovery.
“Now, there’s an expectation for you to be perfect, never make mistakes. It’s a wrong understanding,”
he said.
Despite coming to a resolution on most of the issues between him and his family, the relationship is still healing.
“My father, he realised his mistake and he regrets [it] after,” he said.
“I forgive him. I forgive everyone.”
Ahmed Al Ahmed speaking with a visitor at Bondi Beach near the scene of the attack. (ABC News: Nabil Al-Nashar)
Given all he had been through, Mr Al Ahmed said he had no regrets and if given the chance, would do it all over again, knowing everything he knew now.
“I would change nothing. This was God’s will and this was my fate,” he said.
“Thank God. I’m proud to be Australian of Muslim heritage and I protected innocent people.”
New ventures
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The last year has changed Mr Al Ahmed’s life but not his perspective.
He maintained he was “like any other guy”, who liked to work hard and look after his wife and two young daughters.
His outlook on life matched his positive message to the world.
“It’s a hard time for everyone, I know, but I wish peace and we have to [have] unity and stand next to each other,” he said.
“I’m a proud Aussie and what I did, I didn’t do it for the Muslim community, I did it for the Australian community. I did it for humanity.
“We have to stand with each other and forget the hate and stop hate against each other.“
Ahmed Al Ahmed says he can still hear children crying. (ABC News: Abu Bakr Sajid)
While he is still attending physiotherapy sessions and visiting specialists to save as much mobility as possible in his arm, he is still ready to get back to work.
Except for a short-lived stint as a convenience shop owner from 2021 to 2025, Mr Al Ahmed spent most of his life in Australia working in construction as a carpenter and a supplier of carpentry works.
He said it would be hard for him now to return to that line of work without extra help, yet he was keeping busy with other ventures.
Mr Al Ahmed just launched his debut book Light Will Win, which tells his story from his origins in Syria to receiving the keys to the City of Waverley.
He is also in the middle of setting up the Ahmed Al Ahmed Foundation, which is focused on helping women and children in need, especially those escaping family violence.
Source: www.abc.net.au
