Hundreds march in Sydney for pro-Palestine protest as Opera ...
The conflict has so far killed at least 700 people in Israel, including 260 at a music festival, and seen around 130 people taken hostage.
Israel has responded by launching a devastating barrage on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 560 Palestinians, including dozens of children.
Israel on Monday vowed a complete siege of the region, having already cut power to the densely populated enclave, making it increasingly difficult for health workers to treat the more than 2200 injured people in Gaza.
About 6pm on Monday, hundreds of people began gathering outside Sydney Town Hall before moving through the CBD towards the Opera House.
People carried Palestinian flags, wearing black, white, red and green, and carrying banners with messages such as "Apartheid, wrong in South Africa, wrong in Palestine" and "Free Palestine".
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"Resistance is justified as long as more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are forced to live in an open air prison for the past 15 years," one speaker with family in Gaza said, condemning "massacres, pogroms, land confiscation".
"As long as Palestinians in Jerusalem and the surrounding cities are being ethnically cleansed and forced to live under the boots of the Zionist fascist occupation day in and day out for the past 75 years."
The Nakba, or catastrophe, refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
One of the march's organisers, Josh Lee, said lighting the Opera House in an expression of support for Israel was "disgusting", given the Palestinians were oppressed victims.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had earlier called for the march to be called off out of respect for the loss of life in Israel since Saturday.
"The actions of Hamas in this is completely indefensible," Albanese told 2GB radio this afternoon, adding that "this was people killing innocent civilians".
Greens state MP for Newtown Jenny Leong criticised the prime minister's comments and the lighting of the Opera House "in support of those bombing Palestinian people in Gaza into oblivion".
"Disgraceful to see political leaders fail to recognise the complexity and reality of this human rights and humanitarian crisis," she said.
There was a heavy police presence keeping an eye on the march, with both mounted officers and some on foot.
The group organising the march, Palestine Action Group Sydney, said it would be a "mass, peaceful protest" and police also described the event as "peaceful".
A man who attended the march with an Israeli flag was arrested and removed "to prevent a breach of the peace", police said.
He was issued with a move-on order and wasn't facing any further action.
Video footage posted to X shows the man, with his flag in a tennis bag after he had waved it earlier, exchanging words with some members of the pro-Palestinian crowd near Town Hall before walking away without further incident.
Some estimates put crowd numbers at about 1000.
Sydney's Jewish community said police had warned them to stay away from the Opera House while it was lit up.
"NSW Police and Community Security Group (CSG) are urging the community not to attend the Sydney Opera House precinct or Town Hall this evening," the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies said in a statement.
"Community members already in the CBD should also be vigilant as protesters are likely to seek to march from Town Hall to the Sydney Opera House.
"The events tonight may pose a risk to the safety of community members and you are strongly urged not to attend.
"NSW Police and the CSG have confirmed unequivocally that it is safe to continue to participate in all official Jewish communal events and to send your children to school in the usual way."
The Opera House was one of several Australian landmarks, including Parliament House in Canberra and the Adelaide Oval, to be lit up in blue and white on Monday in support of Israel.
In Melbourne, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles attended a Jewish community gathering where he said Australia's "heart breaks for Israel" .
"We do condemn Hamas in the strongest possible terms. Theirs is an ideology of terror and these are acts which are of the most profound evil," he said.
"And as Israel acts to defend herself, and to seek the protection and the liberation of her citizens to act against Hamas, Australia stands by her side.
"And in 2023, it is time around the world that there is an acknowledgement that Israel has the right to exist in peace and in security."
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