OAN Staff Cory Hawkins
2:16 PM – Tuesday, December 16, 2025
A 14-year-old girl who was shot during the Bondi Beach antisemitic terrorist attack used her injured body to shield two young children whose mothers had been killed nearby. Rather than fleeing, she stayed with them to keep them safe and has since been widely hailed as a true heroine.
The story of the young girl’s courage first emerged from eyewitness accounts and local community reports in Australia, shortly after the massacre made news headlines.
Chaya Dadon, 14, shared her story with members of United Hatzalah’s Psycho-trauma and Crisis unit who visited her in the hospital.
The 14-year-old was attending the “Chanukah by the Sea” event when two Islamist gunmen, Sajid Akram, 50, and Naveen Akram, 24, a father and son, unleashed a barrage of gunfire into a crowd of Jewish people celebrating the holiday. 16 people, including Sajid, were killed during the attack.
In the midst of the chaos, Chaya reportedly spotted two young children crying and exposed to danger. She rushed from the bench where she had been taking cover, throwing herself over them to shield them with her body. As bullets flew past, one struck her in the leg, but even wounded, she refused to budge, staying in place to protect the children until first responders arrived and drove her to the hospital.
The teenager laid “down over two young children whose mothers were murdered in the attack, thereby saving their lives”, a social media post by former IDF soldier Eli Afriat stated.
According to Hatzalah, Chaya spoke of the ordeal “softly, without drama, describing her instinctive need to protect the children in those terrifying moments. It was only afterward that the full weight of what she had done became clear.”
Hatzalah is a volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) organization that primarily serves Jewish communities around the world. They provide rapid first-response medical care, including ambulances, paramedics, and first-aid support, often arriving before official emergency services.
Chaya’s grandfather, Rabbi Yaakov Lieder, emphasized that he was not surprised by his granddaughter’s heroism. “Her instinct [was] to save lives while these terrorists are killing people. What a contrast,” he added, further describing her as a “sensitive gentle soul.”
“She always wants to make people happy.”
Lieder was heading to the Hanukkah celebration when his grandson alerted him to the unfolding attack. Tragically, his nephew, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was among those killed in the shooting.
“Spreading love and joy and caring for his people with endless self-sacrifice in his life and in his death, he towered above as one of the highest and holiest souls,” he continued. “This loss is massive for the entire Jewish nation but, for our community here, and for Chabad of Bondi, the loss is unspeakable.”
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