‘It’s something that we will never forget’
A young Sydney mother recounts the terrifying moments she fled gunfire at Chanukah by the Sea, desperate to protect her children amid chaos and bloodshed.
Young mum Samantha faced something no parent ever wants to deal with. Separated from her husband and son, she was with her four-year-old daughter when shooting suddenly began at Chanukah by the Sea.
“It sounded just like fireworks and I didn’t think anything of it,” she told The AJN when recounting the horrifying evening. “And then I saw people just dropping around me. And I took my daughter and I just ran towards the promenade and hid behind a wall.”
Samantha described throwing her daughter over the fence to a friend and frantically trying to call her husband, who she hoped was still with their six-year-old son. With gunshots continuing to ring out, Samantha grabbed her daughter yet again to seek shelter, running towards the Surf Life Saving Club.
Samantha recalls being stopped on the way, and being questioned about whether she was Israeli.
“I don’t know what would have happened if I had said yes,” Samantha mused, explaining she simply yelled ‘no’ and continued to run for her and her daughter’s lives.
Thankfully, that’s when she received a phone call from her husband, who together with their son, were directly in the firing line of the terrorists.
“My poor son witnessed things that no kid should ever see,” Samantha said. “We’re so grateful that we’re all alive, but I don’t know how they dodged all the bullets. There was blood all over my husband from a guy who got shot in the back right next to him.”
Samantha said her husband just kept trying to shield their son.
“He kept on telling our son to hide behind here, hide behind there. And there were bodies just dropping left, right and centre all around my husband and my son. And they they came out alive.”
The family all ended up together, but still didn’t feel safe while at the beach. So once again, the family ran, finding themselves in a stranger’s car begging him to drive them away from the scene.
With her daughter on her lap and her husband and son in the backseat, they drove as quickly as they could. Samantha laughed as she recalled the driver turning to her only once they were halfway to Dover Heights to introduce himself.
While she admitted she’s not religious, Samantha told The AJN there were miracles happening that day. Explaining that her husband wrapped tefillin with JEMS and Rabbi Yossi also said a prayer for her, she was heartfelt in her belief that “that’s what saved us.”
But she acknowledged the trauma will remain for a long time, saying that even when her son dropped something on the floor at home, the whole family jumped. Samantha also said that still today, her daughter is asking why there was so much blood on her dad, why there were so many loud noises and why Samantha grabbed her while trying to escape.
“It’s something that we will never forget. But as time goes, hopefully my children will. It’s so sad that my son had to see all of that, and how close it all was around them. If that guy next to my husband hadn’t gotten shot in the back, it would have been my kid,” Samantha said. “We’re so much on edge. But so grateful that we’re alive.”
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