Andrew Wallace condemns civilians involved in Hamas attacks on Israel

A Queensland MP who witnessed first-hand the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israelis told a Jewish rally he was particularly sickened that Palestinian civilians joined in.

A Queensland MP who witnessed first-hand the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack on Israelis told a Jewish rally he was particularly sickened that Palestinian civilians joined in.

Federal MP Andrew Wallace was speaking at a rally against anti-Semitism on the Sunshine Coast which was attended by about 200 people.

Mr Wallace, who watched the gruesome 40-plus minutes of bodycam footage released by Israel before visiting communities attacked, said he was disturbed there were still some in the community denying the October 7 massacre happened.

“There are parts of our community who say ‘Oh that never happened … that this was all fake news and that 1100 or so innocent Israelis weren’t killed or that Israel had something to do with it.’’

“I have seen things which I wish I didn’t see,’’ he told the crowd at Cotton Tree on Sunday afternoon.

An Israeli massacre site. Picture: Andrew Wallace MP

The deputy chair of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security said he visited Sderot, the ‘air raid capital of the world’, which is about a kilometre from the border of Gaza and heard first-hand accounts of people waiting hours to be rescued as they hid in their homes with their children.

He said IDF reservists had driven to southern Israel in an effort to resist 2000 to 3000 Hamas terrorists who crossed the border.

“Many of them lost their lives.’’

He said after the initial attacks by Hamas in some Jewish communities there were civilians who joined in.

One of the massacre sites in Israel. Picture: Andrew Wallace MP

“What followed were a wave of Palestinian civilians that came in and stole everything that wasn’t nailed down and then some.

“Now they would have been stepping over bodies to do that.

“The reports that we had from the IDF was that most of the homes that were burnt were done by the civilians in the second wave.”

He said videos showed Hamas terrorists throwing the severely wounded into the back of utes.

Federal MP Andrew Wallace speaks as Sunshine Coast residents rally in support of the Jewish community.

“It’s something you can’t imagine, the treatment of these people and then we saw footage when the trucks arrived back into Gaza and the sheer delight and celebration of many of the Palestinian civilians, that is a sight that I saw on video that will never leave me.

“So I am not suggesting that all Palestinians are bad people but there are certainly a very strong element of Palestinian civilians that were at least complicit in what happened on October 7.’’

Sunshine Coast residents rallied in support of the Jewish community.

Mr Wallace said Australians had an obligation to ensure anti-Semitism did not get a foothold in Australia, urging people to call out behaviour “whether on a bus, at school, or at work”.

The Australian Friends of Palestine Association, while not condoning what happened on October 7, has maintained it can never justify the slaughter of thousands in Gaza by Israeli military operations.

The grand daughter of a Holocaust survivor told the crowd: “We’re still waiting for the hundred and thirty six Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas terrorists for the last 113 days to be released. Some of them are still babies.”

“The scale of the barbaric killing in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks cannot be justified as ‘self-defence’ any longer,’’ the group says.

“We reject the notion that Palestinian resistance to Israel is based on antisemitism rather than the real, observable, and documented cruelties and crimes of the Israeli occupation now 56 years old,’’ the AFOPA argued.

A woman looks at a screen of photos of those killed during the Oct 7 Hamas attack and soldiers killed in the war in Gaza at the National Library of Israel (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)

“We condemn the governments of the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and other Western powers who now stand by Israel effectively giving it a blank cheque to do whatever it wants in response to the killing of Israeli citizens by Hamas, which we also condemn.”

Maroochydore MP Fiona Simpson told the rally that what happened on October 7 could never be excused or defended.

“If we are to stand with those who say ‘never again’ and to never forget what happened with the Holocaust you can never excuse what Hamas did.”

Sunshine Coast Rabbi Oshy Goodman urged parents to take a stand.

“We have the moral responsibility to pass onto to our children, and to those we are able to, a sense of morality … the common sense to know right from wrong.

“You have a lot of young people running around screaming all types of things, making no sense whatsoever.

“Let’s remind them that the world runs on morality, societies flourish on morality, and truth, and belief and kindness to one another.”