The Duke and Duchess of Sussex met with survivors and first responders of the December Bondi Beach terror attack as they wrapped up their tour of Australia.
Volunteer lifeguards, community leaders and survivors met with the couple on the Sydney beach where two armed men carried out an attack on members of Australia’s Jewish community, killing 15 people and injuring 40 during a Hanukkah event.
When Prince Harry and Meghan arrived at the Bondi Surf Bathers’ Life Saving Club on Friday morning, they were welcomed by a large crowd, which shouted, “Welcome to Bondi!”
Harry and Meghan walked barefoot across the beach as they spoke with several survivors and first responders of the massacre, including 40-year-old Elon Zizer, who survived after being shot multiple times while shielding his children.
“It’s an honor to meet the duke and duchess. It’s very beautiful that they’ve come and made an effort to meet us,” Zizer said, per Reuters. “It’s very special — it makes us feel heard.”
Recalling the attack, Zizer said, “I got shot in my chest and the heart and I crawled away ’cause I didn’t want to die in front of my children, right on top of my children,” per The Telegraph.
“Apparently I almost died on the grass pretty much and got resuscitated. I was in a 10-day coma, woke up, found out my children were OK but my mother was shot. She survived.”
The couple also spoke with Jessica Chapnik Kahn, who said she was at the petting zoo with her 5-year-old daughter when the attack began. She ran with the crowd to hide behind a wall in the picnic area, then laid on top of her daughter to shield her.
“We couldn’t move,” Chapnik Kahn said, per The Telegraph. “I could hear the shots coming closer and closer, and I could feel things spraying over me — from the people dying around us — and it was at that point that I realized that we were preparing to die.”
She continued, “I prepared my daughter, I didn’t want her to die with sirens and gunshots and screaming and wailing mothers, so I said to her, ‘go to your heart, where all the love is, and stay there.’”
“And we just lay together in this hard space. And we survived.”
Jacob Ezrakhovich, a lifesaver and first responder during the attack, said the visit from Harry and Meghan carried particular significance.
“There’s so much they can do in Sydney with their time,” he told The Telegraph. “The fact they are coming here, taking the time, making the effort, it’s a mark of respect. It’s definitely appreciated.”
After their visit to Bondi Beach, the couple were welcomed by a crowd of fans at the Sydney Opera House, where they boarded a boat to join members of the Invictus community for a sailing event.
Also during their four-day tour — a privately funded visit — Harry addressed the InterEdge Summit as a keynote speaker, while Meghan made a surprise appearance on the cooking reality show “MasterChef Australia.” The couple also visited the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and a women’s homeless service.
Their brief visit to Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney stirred up a mixed reception. Some critics viewed the tour as self-promotional or an opportunity to — as the Sydney Morning Herald put it — use Australians “as an ATM.”
Others praised the couple for their ability to draw large crowds and stay relevant.
“It was fascinating to see the polarising couple in action,” wrote the Daily Telegraph in a piece headlined “Harry and Meghan’s Australia tour shows what the Royal family is missing.”