Bondi Beach attack survivor Eva Geller, 90, dies almost a year after the massacre
Seven Lights
Eva Geller, 90, who was shot during the antisemitic attack on a Hanukkah festival at Bondi Beach, died in hospital almost 12 months after the massacre, the Jewish community said Friday.
A senior community source said Mrs. Geller had been in and out of hospital this year being treated for injuries sustained in the attack of December 14, 2025. She had recently been readmitted after developing an infection and died after suffering a stroke. Her funeral was scheduled for Monday. A family spokesperson asked for “privacy during this difficult time.”
Mrs. Geller had celebrated her 90th birthday earlier this year.
Fifteen people were killed when Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, opened fire on the festival on the Sydney beach. Forty others were wounded. Police shot Sajid Akram dead at the scene. Naveed Akram was charged with 78 offences, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of committing a terrorist act that investigators allege may have been “inspired by Isis.” He remains before the courts.
Police have provided no detail on whether the charges could be expanded following Mrs. Geller’s death. New South Wales authorities have said the case remains under investigation in liaison with the state coroner.
Rabbi Aron Moss of the Nefesh Synagogue in Sydney confirmed the death Friday, saying Mrs. Geller had died Thursday night. She had escaped the Holocaust as a child with her family, come to Australia and built a large family, and “was strong and pretty healthy, right up until the Bondi attack, where she was shot,” Rabbi Moss said. Told she would never walk again after the shooting, she walked again “miraculously and with incredible determination,” he said, and attended her synagogue through the recent High Holidays “with an incredible show of strength.” She was a mother, a grandmother and a great-grandmother, he said, “a positive person… positive, loving, and strong throughout her life, right until the end.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Friday he was saddened by the news: “her life was changed forever by an act of terror and antisemitism.” The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, called the news “heartbreaking.”
The attack was Australia’s worst mass shooting in almost three decades. It prompted sweeping gun law reforms and a crackdown on hate speech. The accused’s trial has not begun; Mrs. Geller’s family asked that attention remain on the survivors and the victims’ families as the legal process continues.