‘A Hanukkah Miracle’: Unlocked Van Saves Couple Fleeing Bondi Gunfire

SYDNEY — An unlocked van and a split-second decision are being credited with saving the lives of an elderly Jewish couple fleeing gunfire at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, according to interviews conducted by The Sydney Morning Herald.

Benyomin and Raizel Simons told the Herald they had just left the festival when shots rang out. While younger people dropped beneath parked cars, the couple said their age made that impossible. Instead, they moved from vehicle to vehicle until spotting a van with its side door open.

They climbed inside, hid and prayed.

“At one point I looked up and the shooter was directly in line with the van,” Benyomin Simons told the Herald. “Getting into that van saved my wife’s life and mine.”

The van belonged to Josh Pulford, who had been nearby and fled moments earlier when the shooting began. Pulford told the Herald he saw the gunmen from near his vehicle before running toward the surf club to escape.

When he later returned, he found the Simons sheltering inside. Pulford said he urged them to remain there as police and emergency crews secured the area, then helped escort them away from the scene. Another bystander later drove the couple home.

The Simons said it was only after watching video footage of the attack that they grasped how close they had come to being shot. Every other nearby vehicle, they said, had been locked.

“That open door felt like our Hanukkah miracle,” Simons said.

After the couple’s daughter recognized Pulford in Herald coverage from the United States, the family arranged to meet him again at Bondi. The Simons said the encounter was emotional and reinforced how narrowly they survived.

Both have since begun trauma counseling and said they feel a renewed obligation to bring “more light” into the world through good deeds.

Pulford told the Herald he is still trying to process what happened.

“Everything has happened very fast,” he said. “I haven’t really had time to take it all in.”