Israeli who confronted Bondi terrorist remains in critical condition

A 30-year-old Israeli man who confronted one of the Bondi Beach attackers and was shot three times remains in critical condition and intensive care after multiple surgeries in St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney on Sunday, a week after the massacre.

Gefen Bitton, who has been working in Australia for the past three years as a garage door technician, is comatose.

In video footage, Bitton (dressed in a red shirt)—along with Syrian national Ahmed al-Ahmed, who has won universal praise for his heroism—is seen running toward attacker Sajid Akram before being shot. Bitton managed to call his sister in Israel to tell her that he had been wounded before collapsing.

Tom Cohen, a friend of Bitton, told Australia’s 7NEWS that Bitton had attended the Chanukah by the Sea celebration at Bondi Beach, organised by the Chabad movement, after a day of hiking in the Blue Mountains, and had looked forward to the candlelighting. Although he was initially out of the attackers’ shooting range, he chose to confront them head-on, his friends said.

Fifteen people were murdered, including a 10-year-old girl and an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, and scores were wounded during the Dec. 14 attack.

JNS