The Federal and New South Wales governments have declared Sunday, December 21, as a day of reflection in order to honor the victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, announced Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a press conference early Friday.
Albanese went on to say that intelligence has confirmed that the Bondi Beach attack was ISIS-inspired.
He also announced that Australia will launch a national gun buyback scheme in the wake of the attack, declaring that "we expect hundreds of thousands of firearms will be collected and destroyed through this scheme."
The buyback would be similar to gun reforms introduced soon after the massacre in 1996 in Tasmania's Port Arthur after a lone gunman killed 35 people, which prompted authorities to implement some of the world's toughest gun laws.
"Australia's gun laws were last substantially reformed in the wake of the Port Arthur tragedy. The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets," Albanese said during a media briefing.
An estimated four million firearms are currently in the country, Albanese said. The government would target surplus, newly banned, and illegal firearms, with the costs to be shared between the federal and state governments, he said.
Following the Port Arthur massacre, Australia announced a gun buy-back scheme and secured the surrender of about 640,000 prohibited firearms nationwide.
Neighboring New Zealand announced sweeping gun reforms, including gun buyback schemes, after the Christchurch terror attack in 2019.
Detained men likely had ideological links to Bondi gunmen
Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his center-left government has not done enough to curb a surge in antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, has said the government would also strengthen hate laws.
The government said it has consistently denounced antisemitism over the last two years and passed legislation to criminalize hate speech. It expelled the Iranian ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks.
Authorities have said Sunday's shooting appears to have been inspired by the Islamic State, and police have ramped up patrols and policing in an effort to prevent further violence.
Late on Thursday, police said they had intercepted two cars and detained seven men in Sydney's southwest after receiving information that "a violent act was possibly being planned."
New South Wales State Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said the men could be released soon after assessing that the specific threat they posed was unknown, and that officials would continue to monitor them.
Lanyon said police were not prepared to take any risks after suspecting the group was planning to visit Bondi.
There was no "confirmed link" between the detained men and the two Bondi gunmen, but they likely had similar ideologies, he added.
Islamic State has called the Bondi mass shooting a "source of pride," in an article published on the group's Telegram channel, though it did not explicitly claim responsibility.
Police and additional security have been deployed at Sydney's Lakemba mosque, one of the largest in Australia, ahead of Friday prayers, Australian media reported.
Australia's Jewish community gathered at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Friday for prayers, while hundreds of swimmers and surfers formed a huge circle in the waters off the beach to honor victims.
Community leaders described the support as deeply moving amid heightened fears over a surge in antisemitic incidents.
"Over the past two years, there's been a lot of people who have been questioning whether we're still welcome here in Australia because we saw people calling for our death on the streets on a weekly basis," Rabbi Yosef Eichenblatt from Sydney's Central Synagogue told ABC News, after attending the paddle-out event.
"So it's been so heart-warming to see the outpouring of love and support. It's really so therapeutic."