Like many Australians who walk along Bondi Beach on long, warm summer evenings, Ahmed al Ahmed just wanted a cup of coffee with a friend. A bloody carnage erupted around him like two gunmen targeted Jews during the Hanukkah celebration in a park near the coast.

Soon, al Ahmed was crawling, bent over, between two parked cars, before lunging directly at one of the unsuspecting attackers. In a video that has been viewed millions of times around the world, the 44-year-old father can be seen attacking one of the attackerswresting the man’s shotgun from his grip and turning it on the attacker.

The story of a Syrian-Australian Muslim shopkeeper who stopped one of the gunmen’s rampage on Sunday has caught on in a country desperate for comfort after one of its darkest moments: the killing of 15 people as they celebrated their Jewish faith.

“At a time when we saw the evil committed, he shines as an example of the strength of humanity,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on 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 have never met al Ahmed attracted around 40,000 people with donations on Tuesday night, giving A$2.3 million ($1.5 million). Backers included billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman, who pledged AU$99,000.

Al Ahmed, who is married with two young daughters, has a long fight ahead of him, said those who spoke to him after Sunday’s massacre. He was shot multiple times in the left arm, apparently by the second assailant in the attack who fired indiscriminately from the pedestrian bridge.

He has already undergone surgery and more surgeries are scheduled, said Lubaba alhmidi Alkahil, a spokeswoman for Australians for Syria, who visited al Ahmed in hospital late Monday. The “quiet and unassuming” man was conscious but weak and faced at least six months of recovery, Alkahil said.

According to Australia’s tax-funded National Health System, Al Ahmed, who is a permanent legal resident of the country, is unlikely to face any bills for his care.

In the days after the attack, a pile of flowers and notes of thanks grew outside the small shop owned by al Ahmed opposite a train station in suburban Sydney. Meanwhile, he was visited in hospital by Australian leaders, who apparently told Chris Minns, the Premier of New South Wales, that they would take the same action again.

World leaders, including US President Donald Trump and the Governor General of Australia, who is the representative of Britain’s King Charles in that country, called him a hero. Minns said al Ahmed had saved “countless” lives in what the prime minister called “the most incredible sight I have ever seen”.

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

Nayrab was heavily bombarded by Assad’s forces, and most of the houses in the city were razed to the ground and reduced to rubble. On Tuesday, the talk was about al Ahmed.

“Ahmed did a truly heroic job,” his cousin Mohammad al Ahmed told The Associated Press. “He tackled and disarmed a terrorist without any hesitation just to save innocent people.”

Ahmed al Ahmed’s parents, who came to Sydney this year to be reunited with their son, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that their son served in the police and central security forces in Syria. Father Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said his son’s “conscience and soul” compelled him to do something on Sunday.

I feel proud and honored because my son is a hero of Australia, said the father.

After the mass murder, a country reeling from one of the worst hate-fueled attacks ever on its soil – allegedly by an Australian resident who arrived from India in 1998 and his Australian-born son – looked for hope amid their grief.

Other stories of heroism also emerged.

They included a story about a married couple, Boris and Sofia Gurmanwho were both killed while trying to stop one of the shooters as he got out of his car and began the massacre, their family told Australian news outlets.

“Bondi locals, they lived honest, hardworking lives together and treated everyone they met with kindness, warmth and respect,” the family said in a statement. “Boris and Sofia were dedicated to their family and to each other. They were the heart of our family, and their absence left an immeasurable void.”

Reuven MorrisonThe 62-year-old was also killed while trying to stop the horror, according to his daughter Sheina Gutnick. After al Ahmed snatched the gun from one of the shooters, Morrison can be seen throwing objects at the gunman – before being shot by another man.

“My dear father, Reuven Morrison was killed because he was Jewish at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach while protecting lives, while jumping, putting his own life in danger to save his fellow citizens, members of the Jewish community,” Gutnick told CBS News earlier this week.

Such brave acts were cited by many on social networks and in news outlets as examples of what an Australian should stand for.

“When he was doing what he was doing, he didn’t even think about the background of the people he was saving, the people dying on the street,” Mohamed Fateh al Ahmed said of his son. “He makes no distinction between one nationality and another, especially here in Australia there is no distinction between one citizen and another.”