How the world reacted to the Bondi massacre, from the Middle East to Manila

The shock waves from Sunday's deadly terror attack at Bondi Beach have reverberated around the world from the Middle East to Moscow and Manila. We'll start with the latter. 

Filipino news outlet ABS-CBN has this week been dissecting the revelations the two gunmen, Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, had spent most of November in the country.

In a story published on Tuesday, local time, the organisation focused on Australian media reports the pair could have "studied terrorism" in the Philippines.

Its article quoted a senior law-enforcement official, Palmer Mallari, who said: "We are entertaining that possibility but we cannot confirm that."

Meanwhile, news Sajid Akram had emigrated from Hyderabad to Australia in the 90s made big headlines in India.

The Hindustan Times — one of the country's most influential newspapers — published a story claiming the gunman "had minimal contact with his family" since leaving.

It also made a point of highlighting a quote from local police, who said the pair's radicalisation "had no connection to India".

A story in The Times of India pointed out these "fresh details", released on Tuesday, had "corrected earlier reports that had identified the attacker as being of Pakistani origin".

Sunday's attack was targeted at a Jewish gathering on Bondi Beach, and rising antisemitism in Australia has been a feature of media coverage in Israel.

Haaretz, a daily newspaper published in both Hebrew and English and known for its criticisms of Israel's government, has been analysing the tragedy extensively.

Judy Maltz, the publication's Jewish world editor, wrote on Monday: "Since October 7, Australia has witnessed an explosion of antisemitism. Synagogues have been firebombed and vandalised, vehicles have been set on fire, Jewish artists have been doxed, Jewish businesses have been boycotted and hateful graffiti has been sprayed on the homes and property of prominent Jews, as well as Jewish schools.

"But despite the unprecedented wave of antisemitic incidents, none had previously involved a deadly attack against Jews on Australian soil. And while many Jewish community leaders say, 'The writing was on the wall', few could have imagined a killing spree on this scale in a country long regarded as one of the safest havens for Jews on Earth."

The country's ultra-conservative Channel 14 has broadcast wide-ranging criticisms of Australia in the days since the terror attack.

It also carried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first remarks about the tragedy live on air. He was speaking in Hebrew at an event in the city of Dimona, where he described the Bondi attack as "cold-blooded murder".

"The number of casualties, sadly, continues to rise by the minute," he said.

Mr Netanyahu, in that same speech, initially claimed: "I saw a video showing a Jew throwing himself at one of the murderers, taking his weapon, and saving God knows how many lives."

He was referring to a clip that went viral in which a Syrian immigrant to Australia, Ahmed Al Ahmed, rushed one of the gunmen and disarmed him.

Mr Ahmed, who is a Muslim, is recovering in a Sydney hospital after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds and has been widely recognised as a hero. Later, speaking in English, Mr Netanyahu praised Mr Ahmed as "a courageous man, who happens to be a courageous Muslim".

Several media outlets in the Arab world pounced on the Israeli prime minister's correction.

Lebanon's French-language L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper highlighted it in a headline: Netanyahu praised Ahmed Al Ahmed for his "Jewish heroism".

Meanwhile, Qatar-headquartered conglomerate Al Jazeera noted "the attack would have claimed many more lives had it not been for the intervention of Syrian national Ahmed Al Ahmed, who confronted one of the attackers".

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei took to social media to condemn the attack.

Relations between Australia and Iran have plummeted over the issue of antisemitism this year, culminating in the Islamic republic's ambassador being expelled in August.

Media outlets in the United Kingdom have been covering Sunday's terror attack closely. On Monday, newspapers around the country had the mass shooting splashed on their front pages.

The Times described it as a "bloodbath at Bondi Beach" while several other publishers led their coverage with details of Mr Ahmed's heroics.

Like Australia, the UK has grappled with rising antisemitism. October's deadly Yom Kippur attack at Manchester's Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue is still fresh in many Brits' minds.

The Daily Mail devoted seven pages to its coverage of the Bondi attack in its Monday edition and noted one of the people who had been murdered, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, had grown up in London.

Meanwhile, The Sun was one of several newspapers that used its editorial column to make a point about the tragedy. It described Mr Ahmed as "a shining light in an increasingly grim world".

"It is time for our political and police leaders to follow his example and stand up to the hawkers of hatred," it read.

Elsewhere, the Russian state-run news agency TASS broke the news of Sunday's mass shooting to its 560,000 followers on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, noting diplomatic sources believed no Russians had been caught up in the attack.

As it turned out, several people with links to Russia, or countries in the former Soviet Union, had been among the casualties.

In the United States, where the world's largest Jewish population outside Israel resides, the attacks sparked rolling coverage on multiple TV networks and considerable analysis in newspapers.

An opinion piece in The New York Times titled "Bondi Beach Is What 'Globalise The Intifada' Looks Like" dissected the issue of rising antisemitism Down Under.

In it, Bret Stephens — a conservative Jewish columnist — noted: "I heard an earful of alarm from Jewish community leaders when I last visited Australia in June 2024, but nothing seemed to change."

Firearms laws, and the potential for tougher regulations in Australia, has also been a feature of the coverage in America.

"While gun-control measures remain a bitter partisan political issue in the United States, they are a common response to mass killings in many countries," read an explainer published by The Washington Post on Monday.

An article published by NPR explained Australia already had strict gun laws, and that tightening them further had significant public support.