Protesters march on Sydney Opera House but prime minister Anthony Albanese says people need to ‘take a step back’
Hundreds of Australians have marched in solidarity with Palestinians after the Israeli government formally declared war against Hamas in response to its surprise attack.
The militant group Hamas launched a co-ordinated attack across Israel on Saturday, killing hundreds of civilians were killed and taking dozens of hostages in the largest incursion since the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
The Israeli death toll has now risen to at least 700 and in Gaza, which was pummelled by Israeli airstrikes, officials have reported at least 400 deaths.
The rally in Sydney, organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney, demanded Australia cut ties with Israel and urging supporters to “protest in solidarity with Palestine”.
Attendees marched from Town Hall to the Sydney Opera House on Monday, arriving about 7pm, where the landmark was to be lit up in blue and white in support of Israel.
NSW Greens MP Jenny Leong shared the event details on Twitter, describing the decision to light the Opera House sails as “appalling”.
“What about all of the Palestinian lives lost since occupation?” she asked.
Speaking from Town Hall, activist and academic Fahad Ali called on the crowd to resist Israeli occupation of Palestine.
“We’ve suffered 75 years of dispossession, denied our rights to life and liberty, under an ever-worsening occupation by a colonial regime that has perpetrated every kind of atrocity upon us,” he said.
Read the article in The Guardian (AAP).