Key Points
- Thousands of people are attending pro-Palestinian rallies across the country.
- The events are expected to have a heavy police presence after antisemitic chants were heard at a Sydney rally earlier this month.
- A funeral for Australian Galit Carbone was held outside Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon after she was killed in the Hamas attack on October 7.
Australians have taken to the streets to show their support for an end to the Hamas-Israel war at pro-Palestinian rallies across the nation.
About 15,000 people marched through the Sydney CBD on Saturday after police green-lit the event, and many more were set to attend events in Perth, Hobart and Brisbane as more information emerges from conflict-stricken Gaza.
Protesters at Sydney's Town Hall chanted "down, down Israel" and "the siege of Gaza, shut it down" as police officers watched on.
"Today, we have come to tell the world that we stand on the right side of justice," campaigner Assala Sayara told the protest to loud cheers.
More than a dozen pro-Palestine rallies are expected to go ahead in and around Sydney, after NSW Police approved a march of up to 10,000 people in the city centre on Saturday. Source: AAP / Brent Lewin
Sydney protest organiser Fahad Ali said more Australians — including frontbench politicians Ed Husic and Anne Aly — were recognising the gravity of the situation in Gaza.
He told AAP the turnout was "incredible".
"It is a massive message to the government that there is popular support for Palestine that cannot be suppressed," he said.
"The government needs to immediately call for a ceasefire on Gaza. It needs to call for de-escalation. It needs to call for the protection of civilians (and) allowing humanitarian corridors to be established.
"We can't pick one group of victims to sympathise with over the other."
Ali said organisers had worked closely with police to make sure the event was successful.
"Last week, the premier of NSW was saying that there would never be another Palestine march in this state," he said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"We fought against that and we won, so today we're looking forward to a really successful, really wonderful event."
Marchers chanted "Albanese you can't hide, you're supporting genocide" as they walked from Town Hall to Belmore Park.
Protester Vicky Tzioumis from Manly said attending was the least she could do.
"Israel is not playing by the rules. It's shameful," she said.
More than a dozen pro-Palestine rallies are expected to go ahead in and around Sydney, after NSW Police cleared a march of up to 10,000 people in the city centre on Saturday. Source: AAP / Brent Lewin
"This crisis is not an accident, it's been going on for 75 years and has been ignored by the west," she said.
But Council of Australian Jewry chief executive Alex Ryvchin said their call for the liberation of Palestine was an unambiguous call for Israel's destruction.
"The public has been shown what this movement is really about. Their actions are inciting more hatred in Australia and further fracturing our fragile social cohesion," Ryvchin said.
Police officers say there were no reports of aggressive or violent behaviour at the Sydney event, and no arrests were made.
“We appreciate the co-operation of attendees at today’s rally who were generally well behaved,” NSW Police assistant Commissioner Scott Whyte said, while also acknowledging the “professionalism of the police officers".
NSW Police said 830 police officers were deployed across the city during the event.
had been met with a heavy police presence after videos emerged of a small group chanting antisemitic slogans at a rally at the Sydney Opera House.
Rallies since have been relatively uneventful with organisers around the country clamping down on hateful comments to ensure the focus remains on their calls for liberation of Palestine.
More pro-Palestinian protests will take place in Melbourne and Adelaide on Sunday.
The prime minister has pledged $25 million to Jewish and Islamic communities affected by the conflict.
While Ali welcomed the move, he said the government needed and take action to ensure humanitarian aid reaches civilians.
"We're faced with a humanitarian crisis in Palestine — the scale of which we have never seen before," he said.
"It cannot be the case that we wash our hands of responsibility, when we have played a part in creating the conditions that have led up to this."
Refugee Council of Australia CEO Paul Power called on the government to work towards a peaceful resolution and to address the dire situation in Gaza.
Funeral held for Australian mother killed by Hamas attack
A funeral has been held for 66-year-old Galit Carbone, the only Australian citizen killed in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Born and raised in Sydney, she moved to Israel in her teens and she lived on Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Gaza Strip.
Carbone's daughter, Maia, says the family laid her to rest in a cemetery just outside Tel Aviv but hope her body could be relocated to the kibbutz.
"I wish my mum would be remembered as a person full of light, full of love, peaceful, loving, kind," she told SBS News.
"So kind to everyone to everything. Always smiling. And really, really such a good soul."
On Friday evening , who were kidnapped in its attack on southern Israel on October 7
They were the first hostages to be freed since the militant group burst into Israel nearly two weeks ago, .
Heartbroken crowds gathered to say goodbye to Galit Carbone, laying wreaths of flowers. Credit: SBS News
At least 4,137 Palestinians have been killed, including hundreds of children, and 13,000 wounded in Gaza since Israel's retaliatory campaign began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
