The father and son allegedly behind one of Australia’s deadliest mass shootings spent nearly the entire month of November in the Philippines, authorities in Manila confirmed Tuesday, with the father entering as an “Indian national”.

Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, who allegedly killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, entered the country on November 1 with the southern province of Davao listed as their final destination.

“Sajid Akram, 50, Indian national, and Naveed Akram, 24, Australian national, arrived in the Philippines together last November 1, 2025 from Sydney, Australia,” immigration spokeswoman Dana Sandoval told AFP.

“Both reported Davao as their final destination. They left the country on November 28, 2025 on a connecting flight from Davao to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination.”

Police and military sources had earlier told reporters they were still in the process of confirming the duo’s presence in the country.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday that the two men had likely been radicalised by “Islamic State ideology”.

The Philippines’ southern island of Mindanao, home to Davao province, has a long history of militant insurgencies against central government rule.

Pro-Islamic State Maute and Abu Sayyaf militants — including foreign and local fighters — held Mindanao’s Marawi under siege in 2017.

The Philippine military wrested back the ruined city after a five-month battle that claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

While insurgent activity in Mindanao has significantly abated in the years since, the Philippine army continues to hunt leaders of groups deemed to be “terrorists”.

Memorial of flowers

Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon visited Bondi on Tuesday and urged the Australian government to take all required steps to secure the lives of Jews in Australia.

“Only Australians of Jewish faith are forced to worship their gods behind closed doors, CCTV, guards,” Maimon told reporters in Bondi, after laying flowers at the temporary memorial and paying his respects to the victims.

“My heart is torn apart … it is insane.”

A string of antisemitic incidents in Australia has unfolded in the past 16 months, prompting the head of the nation’s main intelligence agency to declare that antisemitism was his top priority in terms of threat to life.

At Bondi, the beach was open on Tuesday but was largely empty under overcast skies, as a growing memorial of flowers was established at the Bondi Pavilion, meters from the location of the shootings.

Bondi is Sydney’s best-known beach, located about 8.2 km (5 miles) from the city center, and draws hundreds of thousands of international tourists each year.

Olivia Robertson, 25, visited the memorial before work.

“This is the country that our grandparents have come to for us to feel safe and to have opportunity,” she said.

“And now this has happened right here in our backyard. It’s pretty shocking.”

Ahmed al Ahmed, the 43-year-old Muslim father-of-two who charged at one of the gunmen and seized his rifle, remains in a Sydney hospital with gunshot wounds. He has been hailed as a hero around the world, including by U.S. President Donald Trump.

A GoFundMe campaign set up for Ahmed has raised more than A$1.9 million ($1.26 million).

Tougher gun laws

Australia’s gun laws are now being examined by the federal government, after police said Sajid Akram was a licenced gun owner and had six registered weapons. Akram received his gun licence in 2023, not 2015 as had been earlier stated, police said on Tuesday.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said gun laws introduced by the previous conservative Liberal-National coalition government following the Port Arthur massacre needed to be re-examined.

Former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard, who introduced the gun restrictions in 1996, said on Tuesday he didn’t want to see gun law reform become a “diversion” from the need to tackle antisemitism.

Albanese had let the Jewish community down, Howard told reporters. “He should have done more to fight antisemitism, a lot more,” he said.

The 15 victims ranged from a rabbi who was a father of five, to a Holocaust survivor, to a 10-year-old girl named Matilda Britvan, according to interviews, officials and media reports. Two police officers remained in critical but stable condition in hospital, New South Wales police said.

Matilda’s aunt has spoken publicly of her family’s heartbreak, saying they were devastated by her death.

“I am beyond belief that this happened. I look on the phone and I am hoping it’s like a little big joke, not real,” Lina Chernykh told 7NEWS Australia.