An Australian official confirmed that Australian Brenton Tarant, the perpetrator of the New Zealand Massacre, which took place last Friday in Christchurch, New Zealand, and killed at least 50 people, visited Israel in October 2016.

The political correspondent for Channel 13 on Israeli television, Barak Ravid, quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that Tarrant entered Israel on October 25, 2016 with his Australian passport.

"Tarant got a three-month visa from Lod airport (Ben-Gurion currently) and confirmed that he stayed in the country for 9 days," the channel's official on Twitter said.

According to Ravid, the Israeli official claimed that at that time there were no suspicions and information about Tarant, who arrived in Israel after a visit to Turkey, where he stayed for a few days.

In the same vein, Israeli officials confirmed on Sunday that the main suspect in the mosque attack had already made a short visit to Israel in late 2016.

An Israeli immigration and immigration agency official told Reuters that Tarant entered Israel in October 2016 on a three-month tourist visa and stayed for nine days.

The official said there were no further details available on what Tarant, 28, did during the visit.

The Australian embassy and the New Zealand Consulate in Israel did not respond to requests to comment on the visit, Reuters said.

"The defendant Tarant entered Israel in October 2016 with a three-month tourist visa and stayed in the country for nine days," said Israeli Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad. Haddad did not elaborate on the Australian.

In late 2016, Tarant also visited Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, where he stopped at historic battle sites before traveling to Western Europe in 2017.

He returned to the Balkans last November to tour historical sites in Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

His Facebook page showed that trips abroad included Pakistan, North Korea, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria and other countries.

One of the racist statements by the perpetrator of the massacre, Brenton Tarant, a 28-year-old Australian, is known as "Turcofagos" and "1683 Vienna" in reference to the history of the Battle of Vienna lost by the Ottoman Empire, And put an end to its expansion in Europe, and "Acre 1189" in reference to the siege of the city by the King of England and the King of France during one of the "Crusades".