The Conversation via Reuters — The 2025 Bondi Beach terrorist attack was different from other terrorism incidents. What stands out was the response.

Lifeguards, off-duty doctors and nurses, and members of the public worked alongside ambulance paramedics and community first-responders to triage and treat the injured. In all, 15 people were killed in the attack on a Hanukkah celebration, in addition to one of the gunmen.

I’m a paramedic, medical doctor, researcher and the clinical lead of Community Health Support – a volunteer medical first-responder charity set up by the Jewish community in Sydney. I had been training our teams for a disaster like this for four years, and helped co-ordinate the organization’s emergency response at Bondi that day.

In a paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia, my colleagues and I describe how our organization prepared for and responded to the Bondi attack, how we helped our community recover, and the lessons we learned.

How the day unfolded

At 6:42 p.m.…