A police officer walks along a fence at Memorial Park Cemetery as a funeral takes place for two of the victims of the Christchurch attacks.

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand —  New Zealand will ban military style semiautomatics and assault rifles, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday, just six days after attacks on two mosques in Christchurch that left 50 people dead.

“On 15 March our history changed forever. Now, our laws will too,” Ardern said. “We are announcing action today on behalf of all New Zealanders to strengthen our gun laws and make our country a safer place.”

She also announced a buyback scheme to encourage people who already own such weapons to surrender them.

The alleged gunman who attacked the Al Noor and Linwood mosques here on Friday used AR-15 weapons in the worst mass shooting New Zealand has ever seen.

As the country continues to face the aftermath of the unprecedented tragedy, on Wednesday, 16-year-old Hamza Mustafa and his father, Khaled Mustafa, who had arrived in New Zealand only a few months ago after escaping the war in Syria, were laid to rest, becoming the first victims of the Christchurch mosque attacks to be buried.

Hamza’s 13-year-old brother, Zaid, watched from a wheelchair, his leg bandaged from where he had been shot, as the bodies wrapped in white shawls and in open caskets were lowered into the ground.

“I don’t want to be here alone,” Zaid said, according to one attendee at the funeral. 

They were shot Friday at the Al Noor Mosque, victims of an admitted gunman who posted anti-immigrant rhetoric online before he launched the attacks on two mosques and killed 50 people. Police now say he had planned to attack a third target before he was stopped.

Hamza called his mother, Salwa, after the attacks began. He was running with his brother, who had already been shot, when his mother heard more shooting and screaming and then nothing.

After the attack was over, someone picked up the phone, the line still open, and told Salwa her son was dead.

Zaid, his mother and his 10-year-old sister are now left without the two oldest men of the family.

The family had been living in Jordan and had hoped to join members of the ethnic Circassian community in the United States but were thwarted by President Trump’s restrictions on travel from Muslim-majority countries, according to local reports.

Hamza was a talented horse rider and loved to play soccer and go fishing, his classmates at Cashmere High School remembered.

Ardern on Wednesday visited the school, which lost another student and a former student in the shootings.

“Yes, there will be some interest in the terrorist who did this. But if I can make one request: Don’t say his name,” Ardern said. “Don’t dwell on who he is. Dwell on your students and friends, on the Muslim community.”

Ardern also said Wednesday that Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, who was flying to Turkey, would “confront” officials there over inflammatory statements made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the massacre in recent days.

“We strongly believe we stopped him on the way to a further attack, so lives were saved,” Bush said.

The suspect was intercepted within 21 minutes of the first calls coming in, he said.

[‘You will never hear me mention his name’: Ardern vows to deny accused shooter notoriety]

Ardern said she shared families’ frustration at how long it was taking for the bodies to be returned to them, but she reiterated that the forensic and identification process takes time. Thirty of the 50 victims can now be returned to the families for burial, she said.

According to Muslim custom, the dead should be buried within 24 hours. Families have said the delay has added to their trauma.

Christchurch is continuing to come to terms with the attacks, the worst mass killing and the only terrorist attack of this kind to have struck the country.

There are still 29 wounded people in Christchurch Hospital, eight of them in a critical condition.

One of the surgeons who helped tend to the injured spoke about digesting the news of the tragedy once the initial emergency had passed.

“I’m of Lebanese origin, I’m a Muslim, I’m an Arab,” said Adib Khanafer, a vascular surgeon and a father of four, who choked back tears when he described the cases he dealt with Friday.

They included a 4-year-old girl who had to be transferred to a specialist children’s hospital in Auckland. “She’s critical, but I think she’s going to come out of it,” Khanafer told reporters at the hospital.

[The power of the haka: New Zealanders pay traditional tribute to mosque attack victims]

New Zealand’s Ardern: ‘When I speak, he shall be nameless’

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern vowed March 19 to not speak the name of the suspect in the Christchurch mosque shootings, which killed 50 people.

Ardern said plans are still being formulated for a national memorial service to be held in Christchurch, but in the meantime, two minutes of silence will be observed Friday. 

“I know from many there is a desire to show support to the Muslim community as they return to mosques, particularly on Friday,” Ardern said in Christchurch. “There is also a desire amongst New Zealanders to mark the week that has passed since the terrorist attack.”

National broadcasters Television New Zealand and Radio New Zealand will play the call to prayer.

Work has been underway to make sure the two mosques that were attacked can reopen Friday. 

Police finished their investigation Tuesday night at the Al Noor Mosque, where 42 people were killed. Since then, builders, painters, glaziers and carpet layers have been seen working furiously to make sure the mosque is ready for worship this week.

Anwar Alsaleh, 65, said he would return to the mosque Friday.

“I’m not afraid,” Alsaleh, who hid in a bathroom during the shooting, told Stuff, a local website. “I’m lucky to be alive.”

Security guards stand by dug graves at Memorial Park Cemetery ahead of the funeral of two victims of the Christchurch terrorist attacks.