Hundreds of people have gathered at a mosque rally and candlelight vigils in Australia’s two biggest cities to remember victims of conflict in Gaza and Lebanon.
Monday marked 12 months since Hamas militants killed around 1200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, in an attack that sparked Israel’s invasion and bombardment of Gaza which has killed more than 40,000 people, according to local authorities.
About 600 people attended a rally at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney’s southwest, many bearing Lebanese and Palestinian flags and others with Palestinian symbols, amid a heavy police presence including riot squad officers and a helicopter.
Israel’s military campaign has expanded to Lebanon as it pursues senior figures in Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group backed by Iran. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are designated as terrorist organisations by Australia.
At the gathering, Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir described the vigil as “exactly what’s happening in the eastern suburbs, respecting the lives that have been lost”.
“This is not a celebration of any kind and for people and the politicians to make it out as if we’re celebrating some atrocity is so disrespectful,” Mr Kheir told AAP.
The event aimed to mark a “difficult 12 months” for those with links to Palestine, organiser Faraz Nomani said.
“There’s catastrophic levels of death and destruction, we’re here today to mark the fact that is was on this day last year that that sequence of events started,” Mr Nomani said.
In central Sydney, organisers from the Palestine Action Group said about 500 were expected at a candlelight vigil planned at Sydney Town Hall.
Interfaith prayers would take place to offer respect and recognition to those lost in the bloodshed, the group said.
The event was opposed by NSW Police, but spokeswoman Amal Nasser told AAP it was intended to be peaceful and followed largely uneventful protests on Sunday.
Community tensions continue to simmer, with police revealing an 82-year-old woman had been charged after allegedly making harassing phone calls to a mosque in western Sydney.
Earlier, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan advised against an evening vigil at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance.
“Today is very much a day of profound grief and trauma and deep, deep sadness for Victoria’s Jewish community,” Ms Allan told reporters.
“They are grieving and have been grieving for a year now, for the single biggest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust.
“Today is certainly not a day to add to that grief and trauma.”
Organisers of the vigil, to be followed by an overnight wake, said it was a chance for people to show their unrelenting resistance to Israel’s actions.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ms Allen attended a formal commemoration in Melbourne, organised by Zionism Victoria, for the Israeli victims of October 7.
Mr Albanese released a recorded message mourning the loss of innocent life and denouncing anti-Semitism.
“Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of anti-Semitism reaching into the present day and as a nation we say, never again,” he said.
