Bondi attack offers lessons for volunteer medics

The 2025 Bondi Beach terrorist attack was different from other terrorism incidents. What stands out was the response.

Lifeguards, off-duty doctors and nurses, and members of the public worked alongside ambulance paramedics and community first responders to triage and treat the injured. In all, 15 people were killed in the attack on a Hanukkah celebration, in addition to one of the gunmen.

I’m a paramedic, medical doctor, researcher and the clinical lead of Community Health Support, a volunteer medical first responder charity set up by the Jewish community in Sydney. I had been training our teams for a disaster like this for four years, and helped coordinate the organisation’s emergency response at Bondi that day.

In a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia, my colleagues and I describe how our organisation prepared for and responded to the Bondi attack, how we helped our community recover, and the lessons we learned.

How the day unfolded