Leaders to attend October 7 anniversary memorials as Australians evacuated from Lebanon

Australia’s leaders will pay their respects to the victims of the October 7 terror attack at memorials around the country, condemning the Hamas attack and warning there is “no place” for antisemitism, prejudice and hatred in the community.

Australia’s leaders will pay their respects to the victims of the October 7 terror attack at memorials around the country, condemning the Hamas attack and warning there is “no place” for antisemitism, prejudice and hatred in the community.

As commemorations take place around the country, the first group of Australian citizens, permanent residents and immediate family members with a right of entry evacuated out of Lebanon will arrive in Sydney on Monday on a repatriation flight operated by Qatar Airways.

As of Sunday a total of 456 Australians and their family members have been evacuated from Lebanon to Cyprus, where they are staying in temporary accommodation in Larnaca before returning on special connecting flights.

Qantas has confirmed it will operate two other flights from Cyprus to Sydney this week, with the first departing on Monday evening local time and a second leaving on Wednesday.

The emergency direct flights are all being operated free-of-charge for the federal government, including no cost to passengers, with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade co-ordinating registration for Australians who want to return home and giving priority to vulnerable people.

Australian Government officials assisting Australians to depart Lebanon on two government-supported charter flights from Beirut Airport to Larnaca, Cyprus. Picture: DFAT

Anthony Albanese will attend an anniversary “illuminate October” event in Melbourne and Peter Dutton will be present at the memorial in Sydney, while senior Labor and Coalition figures will appear at various events, including a vigil at the Israeli Embassy in Canberra.

The Prime Minister said October 7 was a day that carried “terrible pain” and since then Jewish Australians have “felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will attend a memorial in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty / NewsWire

“We unequivocally condemn all prejudice and hatred,” he said.

“There is no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith.”

Mr Albanese said the anniversary of the Hamas attack was a time to “reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe”.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton will attend a memorial for October 7 in Sydney Picture: NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Mr Dutton said the last 12 months have been one of the most “difficult periods” for Jewish Australians in the nation’s history.

The opposition leader said together on the first anniversary of the October 7 terror attack by Hamas respects are paid to the memories of the 1,200 innocent people murdered.

“That day of depravity – the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust – awoke and exposed an anti-Semitic rot afflicting Western democracies.”

On Sunday Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles clarified it supports Israel’s right to “respond” to the threats from Iran and terror groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in the Middle East, aligning Australia’s position with the US.

“Israel clearly has a right to defend itself and that does include a right to respond, but the manner in which it defends itself obviously matters,” he said.