Name: Youngest Bondi victim laid to rest as Australia vows tougher hate laws
Uploaded: 2025-12-18T17:42:00.485Z
Duration: 2 min 29 s
Description: A funeral was held for 10-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim of Sunday’s Bondi Beach mass shooting. She was one of 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish celebration.

A funeral was held for 10-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim of Sunday’s Bondi Beach mass shooting. She was one of 15 people killed when two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish celebration.

Council of the City of Sydney

The funeral for 10-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim of the recent Bondi Beach shooting, was held privately, while public vigils and tributes reflected widespread grief in Sydney. The attack, which occurred during Hanukkah celebrations, also left others injured, including a Holocaust survivor who was saved by quick action at the scene.

In the aftermath, Australia's Prime Minister announced a five-point plan to address anti-Semitism, including new legislation targeting hate speech, hate crimes, and doxxing. While businesses and daily life along Bondi Beach are gradually resuming, the community continues to grapple with the impact of the tragedy.

Youngest Bondi victim laid to rest as Australia vows tougher hate laws

10-year-old Matilda's funeral was private, but the grief surrounding her death has been anything but. Mourners consoled her father outside the Chevro Kedisham Memorial Hall in Sydney, her life honoured at a public vigil. Metres from where she was shot, she's remembered as a happy girl. Her final moments were spent celebrating Hanukkah on Bondi Beach. Victoria Toplitsky's father, Semyon, a Holocaust survivor, was also at the event. He was shot, but survived the attack. The bullet had hit his leg, hit bone, gone through, but also shattered bone and the shrapnel in the leg. If it wasn't for the quick thinking of his girlfriend, he would be on that list of dead, I believe, because there was a lot of blood. And she used her belt as a tourniquet, and Nadezhda used her belt as a tourniquet to wrap it around his leg. The floral tributes now extend to the beachfront, where echoes of the day remain painfully close. Hundreds of people who had joined the festivities fled when the gunfire erupted on Sunday. That moment is memorialised here, with shoes left behind by those who ran for their lives. For the last couple of years, we've faced so much anti-Semitism in this country. There's been a lack of leadership at the top. Australia's Prime Minister says he is taking action, and has announced a five-point plan to combat anti-Semitism. The Australian Government adopts and fully supports the plan to combat anti-Semitism. We have already legislated for hate speech, hate crimes, hate symbols, outlawing doxxing. Cafes on the beachfront are welcoming customers again. We opened this morning, first time since, and six o'clock on the dot, the doors were open and we had a queue. It shows that people want to get back to it, back to their normal life. It's not going to be the same for a while, but I think there is definitely a feeling that we want to take our space back. Along Bondi, on the surface, it appears life is returning to normal. The beach has reopened, swimmers are back in the water and joggers are out again. But beneath it, this is still a community in grieving, with the weight of what happened here deeply felt. Danielle Robertson, Al Jazeera, Sydney.

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Australia's prime minister said a mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach appears to have been motivated by ISIS ideology. Meanwhile, mourners flocked to the site to lay flowers and grieve for the people killed, including a 10-year-old child.

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