WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Like many Australians strolling along Bondi Beach on long, warm summer nights, Ahmed al Ahmed just wanted a cup of coffee with a friend. Around him, a massacre broke out when two gunmen attacked Jews during the Hanukkah festivities in a park near the coast.

Soon, al Ahmed was crawling, crouching, between two parked cars, before lunging directly at one of the unsuspecting shooters. In images that have been viewed millions of times around the world, the 44-year-old father can be seen confronting one of the gunmen, snatching the shotgun from his hands and pointing it at the attacker.

The story of the Syrian-Australian Muslim shopkeeper who stopped one of the attackers on Sunday has been embraced by a country desperately seeking solace after one of its darkest hours: the murder of 15 people while celebrating their faith Jewish.

Millions have been raised for Bondi hero

“At a time when we have seen evil perpetrated, he shines as an example of the strength of humanity,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday, leaving a Sydney hospital where Al Ahmed is being treated for gunshot wounds. "We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country."

A fundraising page set up by Australians who had never met Al Ahmed had collected donations from about 40,000 people as of Tuesday night, totaling 2.3 million Australian dollars ($1.5 million). Among the supporters was billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman, who pledged A$99,000.

Father of two faces long recovery

Al Ahmed, who is married with two young daughters, faces a long fight ahead, say those who have spoken to him since Sunday's massacre. He was shot several times in the left arm, apparently by the second assailant as he fired indiscriminately from a pedestrian bridge.

He has already undergone surgery and is scheduled for more surgeries, said Lubaba alhmidi Alkahil, spokesperson for the Association of Australians for Syria, who visited Al Ahmed in hospital last night. The “quiet and humble” man was conscious but weak and faces at least six months of recovery, Alkahil said.

A prime minister and a president are admirers

Since the day of the attack, the pile of flower arrangements and thank-you notes has grown outside the small tobacco shop Al Ahmed owns opposite a train station in a Sydney suburb. Meanwhile, he has received hospital visits from Australia's leaders, and reportedly told Chris Minns, the premier of the state of New South Wales, that he would do the same again.

He has been hailed as a hero by world leaders, including US President Donald Trump and Australia's governor-general, who is Britain's King Charles' representative in the country. Minns said Al Ahmed saved “countless” lives in what the official described as “the most incredible scene I have ever seen.”

Al Ahmed was a police officer in Syria

Al Ahmed lived in the city of Nayrab in Syria's Idlib region before coming to Australia, his cousin Mohammad al Ahmed told The Associated Press. He left Syria in 2006 after finishing his studies, before the 2011 mass protests against the government of then-President Bashar Assad, which were met with brutal repression and turned into a nearly 14-year civil war.

Nayrab was heavily bombed by Assad's forces, and most of the city's houses were reduced to rubble. On Tuesday, Al Ahmed was the talk of the town.

“Ahmed really did a heroic job,” his cousin, Mohammad al Ahmed, told The Associated Press. “Without any hesitation, he confronted the terrorist and disarmed him alone to save innocent people.”

Ahmed al Ahmed's parents, who came to Sydney this year to join their son, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that their son had served in the police and central security forces in Syria. The father, Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed, said his son's “conscience and soul” prompted him to act on Sunday.

“I feel pride and honor because my son is a hero of Australia,” the father said.

Stories of heroism give hope amid tragedy

In the wake of the carnage, a country shaken by one of the worst hate-motivated attacks on its soil — allegedly committed by an Australian resident who arrived from India in 1998 and his Australian-born son — is looking for hope amid its pain. Stories of heroism have begun to emerge.

These stories include the story of Boris and Sofia Gurman, a married couple who were killed while trying to stop one of the shooters as the massacre began, the couple's family told Australian media.

Reuven Morrison, 62, was also killed while trying to stop the horror, according to his daughter, Sheina Gutnick. After Al Ahmed took the gun from a shooter, a person Gutnick identified as Morrison is seen throwing objects at the gunman, before the second man shoots him.

Acts of bravery like these were cited by many on social media and in the media as examples of what it should mean to be Australian.

“When he did what he did, he wasn't thinking at all about the origin of the people he was saving, the people who were dying in the street,” Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said of his son. “He did not discriminate between one nationality and another, especially here in Australia there is no difference between one citizen and another.”

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Associated Press writers Abdelrahman Shaheen in Damascus and Abdulmajeed Darweesh in Nayrab, Syria, contributed to this story.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.