Mourners grieve 10-year-old slain in Bondi mass shooting as Australia’s leader pledges new hate laws : NPR

Family carry the coffin following a service for Matilda, 10, victim of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, whose last name is being withheld at the request of her family, in Sydney, Thursday December 18, 2025.

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SYDNEY — Hundreds of mourners carrying brightly colored bouquets and hugging each other in a sign of grief gathered in Sydney on Thursday for the funeral of a 10-year-old girl who was gunned down in an anti-Semitic massacre during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.

Matilda, whose last name is being withheld at her family’s request, was enjoying a petting zoo during festivities Sunday, just before she was killed along with 14 others in a mass shooting targeting Jews. The suspects, a father and son, were inspired by the Islamic State group, Australian authorities said.

Matilda’s beaming photos have become a focal point of Australia’s grief over one of the country’s worst ever hate-motivated attacks. The massacre sparked national awareness of anti-Semitism and questions about whether the country’s leaders took the threat to Australian Jews seriously enough.

Matilda’s parents, who came to Australia from Ukraine, “left war-torn Eastern Europe to come here for a good life,” Rabbi Dovid Slavin told The Associated Press as he entered service.

“They did something a parent is allowed to do: take their child to a family event on Bondi Beach,” he added. “If it ends like this, it’s a matter of collective responsibility for every adult in this country.”

Albanese pledges to enact new anti-hate laws

Speaking to reporters in the Australian capital of Canberra, just as Matilda’s service began, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a series of legislative plans that he said would help curb radicalization and hatred.

Among his proposals were measures to expand the definition of hate speech crimes for preachers and leaders who promote violence, strengthen penalties for such crimes, designate certain groups as hateful and allow judges to consider hatred as an aggravating circumstance in cases of online threats and harassment.

Authorities would have more powers to reject or cancel visas “for those who spread hatred and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here,” Albanese added. He did not offer a timetable for the reforms, citing their legal complexity.

Mourners react at the funeral of 10-year-old Bondi Beach mass shooting victim Matilda, whose last name is being withheld at the request of her family, in Sydney, Thursday December 18, 2025.

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“There are organizations that any Australian would look at and say that their behavior, their philosophy and what they are trying to do is divisive and has no place in Australia,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters.

“And yet, for a generation, no government has managed to take action against them because they fell just below the legal threshold.”

The announcement follows Albanese’s pledge to strengthen gun control in Australia, which is already among the strictest in the world. State leaders also promised additional gun initiatives and stricter rules for protest rallies.

Yet the fact that Albanese has not attended any of the victims’ funerals so far – with local media reporting that he was not invited, despite other political leaders being there – hints at the fury of some Australian Jews towards the leader.

Albanese said measures his government has already adopted, including February’s ban on Nazi salutes, show it has taken the threat of anti-Semitism seriously.

“I recognize of course that more could have been done and I accept my responsibility as Prime Minister of Australia,” Albanese said on Thursday. “But what I also do is accept my responsibility to lead the nation and unite the nation.”

Investigation into suspected shooters underway

Meanwhile, investigators continued to probe the suspected gunmen’s links to Australia and their travel to the Philippines before the attack, said Krissy Barrett, the country’s police chief. Authorities earlier revealed that the youngest suspect, Naveed Akram, 24, was the subject of a six-month investigation by Australian security services in 2019.

The older gunman, Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead Sunday, had legally collected the weapons used in the massacre. His firearms license was granted in 2023, after his son came to the attention of authorities.

Philippine national security adviser Eduardo Año told The Associated Press on Thursday that there was no indication the two men received training for the attack in the Philippines. He said the suspected gunmen stayed at a budget hotel in downtown Davao during their entire visit in November.

Año, a former military chief of staff, said in a statement that “the length of their stay would not have allowed for meaningful or structured training.”

Naveed Akram is being treated at a Sydney hospital and was charged on Wednesday with 59 offences, including murder and terrorist acts. He did not plead guilty and many details of the charges against him were suppressed by a judge.

Health authorities said on Thursday another 16 people were being treated in Sydney hospitals. Two of them are in critical condition, and one of them deteriorated to critical condition that morning.

Mourners attend funeral after funeral

As the inquest unfolded, Sydney’s close-knit Jewish community attended funeral after funeral. In addition to the service Thursday for the youngest person killed, Matilda, mourners attended the funeral of the eldest, Alex Kleytman, 87.

The coffin is carried during the funeral of Holocaust survivor and Bondi shooting victim Alex Kleytman at Chevra Kadisha in Sydney on Thursday December 18, 2025.

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The Holocaust survivor was protecting his wife when he was shot, she told reporters outside a hospital this week. Others killed included rabbis, a man shot while throwing bricks at one of the shooters, and a married couple who were killed while trying to tackle a shooter as he got out of his car to begin the attack.

At Matilda’s funeral, a rabbi read a tribute from teachers at the 10-year-old’s school, who described her as “our little ray of sunshine”.

Matilda, who had been delighted to win a national literacy award two days before her death, “had an incredible gift for bringing joy to those around her”, said her school’s tribute.

Grief overflowed as the coffin was carried from the room. Around the mourners, bumblebee balloons floated in the afternoon breeze, a reference to her family’s nickname, Matilda Bee.

Mourners and journalists were given stickers depicting a smiling bumblebee holding a menorah. Above the image was Matilda’s name printed in purple, her favorite color.

“I don’t want to seem selfish,” Slavin said. “But I and many others believe it could have been my child.”