‘All I want to do is protect my baby’
Survivors recount instinctive acts of protection, prayer and courage amid the Bondi attack.
When the shooting began, parents instinctively threw themselves on top of their children, trying to cover every inch of their bodies to protect them.
Jessica Chapnik Kahn had only just arrived at Chanukah by the Sea and her five-year-old daughter Shemi was patting a little goat at the petting zoo when she heard the sound of gunshots.
“I entertained the idea that I was imagining all of this, that it was not gunshots at all, that we had all made a terrible mistake and that in a minute we would laugh at ourselves for piling on top of one another,” Jessica said.
“But the gunshots came closer and closer, and there was no mistaking it. This was a massacre. And it dawned on me that I was no longer preparing to survive. I was preparing for how I wanted to die, for where I wanted my thoughts to rest in my final moments.”
In her desperate attempt to shield her daughter, Jessica realised she had been pressing down on her with her full body weight.
“At least 10 minutes had passed since I had lain on top of her,” she said.
“I thought I had suffocated her. Then I felt her tiny sob from underneath me, like a small miraculous rumble from the earth.”
Chavi Israel-Block was also there with her baby son when she heard what sounded like fireworks. Confused, she suddenly heard CSG members yelling at everyone to get down.
“I leave everything and shove down to the ground, my brain thinking, no, no, this can’t be happening,” said Chavi.
“I am in Australia. People don’t have guns. This can’t be happening. I am shoving my body over my baby. All I want to do is protect my baby.”
Chavi started reciting Tehillim and grabbed crates to put over their heads, the whole time in complete disbelief.
“My baby is hot and sweaty and crying, earth and mud going into his teeny little eyes,” she said.
“His face is bright red. He is sweating. He is screaming. I am holding the bright orange crate over our heads and random baby wipes, trying to protect him.
“I keep thinking, if the bullet will come, at least it will come onto me. Maybe the crates will protect us, or the bullet will go through the baby wipes and the baby wipes will protect us.”
After an eternity, Chavi managed to run to safety, along the way collecting children who hadn’t been able to find their parents.
Arsen Ostrovsky, who only recently moved to Sydney from Israel to head the Sydney office of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, said it was “an absolute bloodbath”.
“I saw blood gushing in front of me. I saw people hit, saw people fall to the ground,” he said.
“I lived in Israel the last 13 years. We came here only two weeks ago to work with the Jewish community, to fight antisemitism, to fight this bloodthirsty, ravaging hatred.”
Ostrovsky was taken to hospital after getting hit in the head, while his wife and children managed to get away.
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