Matilda was the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack in Australia this weekend. She was ten. Her mother describes how it wasn’t a stray bullet: The gunman saw the child and aimed right at her.
At a memorial Tuesday, her mother said:
“I can’t imagine what is [sic] a monster that stands on that bridge, and seeing a little girl running for her father to hide with him, and . . . and he just pulled the trigger on her . . . it wasn’t an accident, it wasn’t just a bullet, fired from a hill . . . it stays here” — she pressed the palm of her hand to her heart, hard — “it just stays here and here.” She cannot continue to speak.
Evil hates innocence.
Her younger sister saw her being shot.
Matilda had lost too much blood by the time she got to the hospital, according to news reports.
The family is from Ukraine. Her parents, Valentyna and Michael, moved to Australia before the Russian invasion. Valentyna expressed how grateful they were not to be in the midst of the war there — only to encounter another kind of war in men’s hearts, and lose their firstborn to an attack on Jews for being Jews.
Matilda was ten. I’d like to think she didn’t even know what antisemitism is. But is that even possible for Jewish children in the world today?
The mother of 10 year old Matilda who was murdered at Bondi beach just spoke. She can’t get the image of the terrorist aiming at her child and firing out of her head and heart. It wasn’t an accident. He fired at her. This is unbearable to watch. pic.twitter.com/8I6kAv8t1z
— Heidi Bachram 🎗️ (@HeidiBachram) December 16, 2025