Australia’s New South Wales to pass emergency gun laws as funerals of Bondi attack victims begin

SYDNEY - The leader of the Australian state of New South Wales said on Dec 17 he will recall Parliament next week to pass wide-ranging reforms of gun and protest laws, days after the country’s

deadliest mass shooting in three decades

.

The

alleged father-and-son perpetrators

opened fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach on Dec 14, in an attack that shook the nation and intensified fears of rising anti-Semitism and violent extremism.

Funerals of the Jewish victims of the attack began on Dec 17, amid anger over how the gunmen – one of whom was

briefly investigated for links to extremists

– were allowed access to powerful firearms.

Mr Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales state where the attack took place, told a news conference Parliament would return on Dec 22 to hear “urgent” reforms, including capping the number of firearms allowed by a single person and making certain types of shotguns harder to access.

The state government will also look at reforms making it harder to hold large street protests after terror events, in order to prevent further tensions.

“We have got a monumental task in front of us. It is huge,” he said.

“It is a huge responsibility to pull the community together. I think we need a summer of calm and togetherness, not division.”

Surviving alleged shooter to be charged soon

Sajid Akram, ‍50, was shot ​dead by police at the scene, while his 24-year-old son, named in local media as Naveed, emerged from a coma on the afternoon of Dec 16 after ‍also being shot by police.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said earlier on Dec 17 the surviving gunman would be charged within hours, but New South Wales police commissioner Mal Lanyon told a news conference the force was still waiting for medication to wear off before formally questioning him.

“He will be charged formally, if he hasn’t been so already, I would expect that will take place over the coming hours,” Mr Albanese said in a podcast interview on the morning of Dec 17.

Naveed Akram remains in a Sydney hospital under heavy police guard.

The men accused of carrying out the Dec 14 attack had

travelled to the southern Philippines

, a region long plagued by Islamist militancy, weeks before the shooting that Australian police said appeared to be inspired by ISIS.

US President Donald Trump told a Hanukkah event at the White House late on Dec 16 that he was thinking of the victims of the “horrific and anti-Semitic terrorist attack”.

Funerals for Jewish victims begin

A

funeral for Rabbi Eli Schlanger,

an assistant rabbi at ‍Chabad Bondi Synagogue and a father of five, was held on Dec 17. 

He was known for his work for Sydney’s Jewish community through Chabad, a global organisation fostering Jewish identity and connection.

Rabbi Schlanger would travel to prisons ​and meet Jewish people living in Sydney’s public housing communities, Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin said ⁠on Dec 15.

Mr Albanese is facing criticism that his centre-left government did not ​do enough to prevent the spread of anti-Semitism in Australia during the two-year Israel-Gaza war.

“We will work with the Jewish community, we want to stamp out and eradicate anti-Semitism from our society,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

The government and intelligence services are also under pressure to explain why Sajid Akram was allowed to legally acquire the high-powered rifles and shotguns used in the attack. The government has already promised sweeping reforms to gun laws.

His son, meanwhile, was briefly investigated by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency in 2019 over alleged links to ISIS, but there was no evidence at the time he posed a threat, Mr Albanese said.

Man praised as hero to undergo surgery

Mr Albanese said Mr Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, the man who

tackled one of the shooters to disarm his rifle

and suffered gunshot wounds, was due to undergo surgery on Dec 17.

Mr Al-Ahmed’s uncle, Mr Mohammed al-Ahmed in Syria, said his nephew left his hometown in Syria’s north-west province of ​Idlib nearly 20 years ago to seek work in Australia. 

“We learnt through social media. I called his father and he told me that it was Ahmed. Ahmed is a hero, we are proud of him. Syria in general is proud of him,” the uncle ‌told Reuters.

The family of 22-year-old police officer Jack Hibbert, who was shot twice on Dec 14 and

had been on the force for just four months

, said in a statement on Dec 17 he had lost vision in one eye and faced a “long and challenging recovery” ahead.

“In the face of a violent and tragic incident, he responded with courage, instinct and selflessness, continuing to protect and help others whilst injured, until he was physically no longer able to,” the family said.

Health authorities said 22 people were still in several Sydney hospitals.

Holocaust survivor among victims

Other victims included a Holocaust survivor, a husband and wife who first approached the gunmen before they started firing and a 10-year-old girl named Matilda, according to interviews, officials and media reports.

Matilda’s father told a Bondi vigil on the night of Dec 16 he did not want his daughter’s legacy to be forgotten.

“We came here from Ukraine… and I thought that Matilda is the most Australian name that can ever exist. So just remember the name, remember her,” local media reported him as saying.

In Bondi, on Dec 17, swimmers gathered ‌on Sydney’s most popular beach and held a minute’s silence.

“This week has obviously been very profound, and this morning, I definitely feel a sense of the community getting together, and a sense of everyone sitting together. Everyone’s grieving, everyone’s understanding and processing it in their own way,” said Mr Archie Kalaf, a 24-year-old Bondi man. REUTERS