14-year-old girl who was shot shielding kids amid Bondi attack released from hospital

SYDNEY, Australia — As two gunmen opened fire on hundreds celebrating Hanukkah on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, 14-year-old Chaya Dadon’s mind was clear.

Across from where she had taken cover from the gunshots under a bench, Dadon saw two children stranded out in the open, beside their wounded parents.

“I knew in that moment, I felt like Hashem was sitting right next to me,” she says in an interview with Reuters, using a Hebrew name for God. “He was whispering into my ear, ‘This is your mission: go save those kids.'”

The schoolgirl left the safety of her hiding spot, pulled the children away and jumped on top of them, covering their bodies with her own. At some point, she was shot in the thigh. But she kept shielding them, reciting the Shema, a Jewish prayer.

“I knew I got shot, but I wasn’t even worried, I channeled all that energy that I had into strength and I made sure that I knew I had to be there for those kids,” she says.

“If I could give up my life saving these children, that’s what I was going to do.”

“Her instinct is to save lives while these terrorists are killing people. What a contrast.”

Rabbi Yaakov Lieder, grandfather of Chaya Dadon, describes his 14-year-old granddaughter and the inspiring type of person she is.

Chaya was hiding under a bench with a friend as the… pic.twitter.com/DbllGPt2kp

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) December 17, 2025

Her father eventually found them and took her to get help. “When he found me, he told me this after, that I had the girl in this arm and the boy in this arm. And I was just kissing them.”

Dadon spent four days at the Sydney Children’s Hospital before returning home on Thursday. She is now walking with crutches, which she has decorated with stickers commemorating some of those who were killed.

She still does not know the children she shielded but hopes to connect with them again.

“Those little kids that have been through things that no one should have been through,” she said, but the ordeal would make the Jewish community stronger.

“Even if they can’t see it now, everyone is going to grow stronger because I really feel like that situation, everyone was tested.”