Eva Geller, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor who suffered critical injuries in the Bondi Beach terror attack nearly a year ago, died at a Sydney hospital overnight Thursday. Her death brings the massacre’s toll to 16.
Geller was among the dozens injured after two gunmen opened fire during a Chanukah gathering at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, 2025.
Fifteen people died in the attack, which Australian officials have classified as an antisemitic act of terrorism.
Arsen Ostrovsky, an Australian-Israeli human-rights attorney who also survived the shooting, paid tribute to Geller on Friday.
“Absolutely devastating,” Ostrovsky wrote on X. “Eva Geller, 90, shot during the Bondi terror attack, has just died, following complications from her injuries, becoming the 16th victim of the massacre. Eva was a HOLOCAUST survivor!”
Geller escaped Romania as a child during the Holocaust. Australian media reported that she had repeatedly been hospitalized as she dealt with the severe wounds sustained in the Bondi Beach shooting.
Rabbi Aron Moss of Nefesh Synagogue in Bondi Beach, where Geller worshipped, said doctors initially believed she would never walk again.
With remarkable determination, Geller eventually regained the ability to walk and reached her 90th birthday, Moss said. Though she was mostly confined to bed after the attack, she continued to maintain an optimistic spirit.
According to the rabbi, Geller lost numerous family members during the Holocaust and was later widowed at a relatively young age.
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‘An act of terror and antisemitism’
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese offered his condolences to Geller’s family and the wider Jewish community after news of her death.
“Eva should have been able to celebrate Chanukah in peace and safety and instead, her life was changed forever by an act of terror and antisemitism,” Albanese said.
New South Wales police confirmed they were aware of Geller’s death and said they were awaiting additional information while coordinating with the coroner’s office.
Authorities have said the suspected attackers, Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, were influenced by the Islamic State. Police killed Sajid Akram at the scene, while his son survived and now faces 15 murder charges as well as a terrorism charge.
The Dec. 14 shooting was Australia’s deadliest mass-casualty attack in decades.
In response to the Bondi Beach antisemitic terror attack and a rise in religiously motivated and hate-related crimes, the New South Wales government has made a rapid-response police unit permanent.
A government-sponsored inquiry into antisemitism and social cohesion, launched after the massacre, is expected to publish its final report on Dec. 18.
The inquiry heard testimony from more than 340 witnesses over 62 days and received in excess of 20,000 submissions.
Geller’s funeral and memorial service are set to take place Monday, Australia’s ABC reported.
