October 7 survivor Arsen Ostrovsky describes ‘pure evil’ of Bondi massacre

A human rights lawyer who survived the October 7 attacks has broken his silence after being horrifically injured during the Bondi massacre.

Arsen Ostrovsky had been attending a Hanukkah festival on December 14 when Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveed Akram, 24, allegedly opened fire on more than 1000 people at Bondi Beach.

The tragedy killed at least 15 people and left scores injured.

Mr Ostrovsky, head of a pro-Israel advocacy group, had only been in Australia for two weeks before the terror attack.

“I couldn’t reach my wife. I didn’t know if my kids survived. I took a picture of myself as I was bloody on the ground to send to my wife,” Mr Ostrovsky told the ABC, recounting the horror of watching the massacre unfold.

“She and the kids thankfully survived and they had escaped, and I only found that out later, only metres (from) where I was and only metres where there were bodies all around us.”By the time Mr Ostrovsky got to the hospital, he had lost so much blood that doctors said it was a “miracle” he was able to survive.

“The bullet grazed my head to the bone. It was millimetres from life and death,” he said.

“We talk about the festival Hanukkah as the festival of miracles. My miracle is I survived to share my story and hopefully, through my voice, the story of so many others. I came here (Bondi) today and yesterday.”Mr Ostrovsky came out of surgery on Wednesday and after visiting his family came to the Bondi memorial to pay his respects to those killed in the attack.

“We must not forget, we were targeted for one reason only, because we are Jews,” he said.

“That is the only reason they attacked us.”

He described the Sunday attack as a “bloodbath” and “sheer, pure evil”.

The massacre evoked the memories of October 7, he said.

“What I choose to take out of this is the incredible humanity shown by everyone around,” Mr Ostrovsky said.