NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna will provide an update after a protester was arrested at Sydney’s pro-Palestine protest today.
Due to technical difficulties we are unable to provide a live stream for this one, however our reporter will bring you an update shortly.
Thanks for joining us for today’s live coverage of the pro-Palestine rally in Sydney.
That’s all for our live coverage – you can catch up on everything that happened today here.
Pro-Palestine protesters are set to defy the calls of politicians and will go ahead with a rally at Sydney’s Town Hall tomorrow, October 7.
The candlelit vigil was organised to “mourn 12 months of genocide and terrorism” in Gaza since Hamas attacked Israel.
Pro-Palestine protesters rally in Sydney on the day before the one year anniversary of the October 7 massacre by Hamas in Israel.Credit: Nine News
The vigil is not an approved protest, and attendees will not have protections if they block footpaths or roads.
The group Stand for Palestine has planned a rally at Lakemba Mosque tomorrow evening to mark “one year of resilience”. The rally is linked to extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
There will be several Jewish events to mark the anniversary of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, including a sunrise prayer and an evening community vigil in the eastern suburbs.
NSW Police have praised protesters for the largely peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration in the city today.
Assistant commissioner Peter McKenna said around 10,000 people turned up to Sydney’s Hyde Park to protest.
Demonstrators at the Sydney protest. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“I did say before the operation that we wouldn’t tolerate criminal offending and social behaviour and I think that message got through,” he said.
There was one arrest – a 56-year-old man, who displayed a nazi swastika on an Israeli flag. He was charged on Sunday afternoon and will face Downing Centre Local Court on October 24.
McKenna said that legal advice provided to the NSW Police indicated that protesters who held flags in Hezbollah colours would not meet the threshhold for facing criminal charges.
Four people were at arrested in Melbourne for public order related offences, according to Victoria Police.
According to the force at least 7,000 people attended the demonstration and there were no major issues of note reported.
“However, four people were arrested for public order related matters,” a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.
“Overall, police were pleased with the behaviour of attendees.”
Victoria Police also confirmed there were no displays of prohibited symbols at today’s event, but police would still review vision and CCTV from the day.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna will provide an update after a protester was arrested at Sydney’s pro-Palestine protest today.
Due to technical difficulties we are unable to provide a live stream for this one, however our reporter will bring you an update shortly.
Members of Sydney’s Jewish community are holding a memorial event at an undisclosed location near Sydney Harbour on Sunday evening to remember victims of the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas.
People began gathering at around 4.30pm, and the event is set to conclude around 7pm after the lighting of a symbolic candle. A strong security presence was established at the harbourside site an hour before the event began.
Israeli Michal Ohana was shot during the October 7 attack by Hamas.
Visitors were handed metal tags with the phrase “bring them home - now”, a reference to the 101 hostages taken by Hamas and other militant groups a year ago who remain unaccounted for.
One of those who will address the crowd at the memorial is Michal Ohana, an Israeli who travelled to Sydney with her country’s embassy to tell her story.
Ohana was dancing at the Nova music festival near Re’im in southern Israel when the attacks began, and endured a nightmare eleven hours of being pursued by gunmen through the scrub and fields around the festival site.
While hiding under an abandoned Israeli armoured vehicle, she was shot in the leg and injured in the stomach by shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade.
“I didn’t feel anything, because of the adrenaline. But I saw that I’m bleeding. I remember calling my mum. I said ‘Mum, I love you. I’m bleeding and I think I’m going to die.’ She started to cry because she can’t help me. I prayed to God. Please God, I don’t want to die, not today, not like this.”
For seven agonising hours, the group of young friends hid beneath and behind the tank as the killing continued around them and the militants hunted for more victims. While the hunt went on, Ohana and others looked at social media feeds on their phones and saw posts from Hamas militants on Telegram boasting about the slaughter.
Ohana was eventually evacuated and taken to the same Israeli hospital where her sister was nursing a newborn baby.
“I feel like I was born again on October 7,” Ohana said. “I am living to tell my story.”
Protesters have returned to Hyde Park, where the march ended. Elizabeth Street and others have since re-opened to traffic, although Riot Squad vehicles still line the street and the Police helicopter remains overhead.
Miriam, who did not want to give her surname, and her four daughters were among the dozens of families picnicking in the park at the conclusion of the march.
The protest was largely peaceful. Credit: Janie Barrett
The family has come to the weekly protest “most weeks” since it began a year ago.
“This [having a picnic afterwards] is a tradition for us now. We sit and think of the families in Palestine who cannot do the same,” she said.
There remains a large police presence in the park, although most of the crowd has dispersed.
While the protest comes to an end, stay with us as our live coverage continues this afternoon. NSW Police will provide an update at around 5.15pm.
One protester carrying an image of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he was displaying it in support “because he’s the only one standing up to Israel”.
The man, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, said the Islamic nation’s Supreme Leader was stepping in where the West had failed.
A protester displays an image of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.Credit: Janie Barrett
“He’s taking action,” the man said.
Dozens of images of the ayatollah were displayed at the protest.
Iran is a key backer of Hezbollah, the group which is considered a terrorist organisation in Australia and has been fighting with Israel in southern Lebanon. Iran also supports Hamas both with military and financial aid.
Iran fired at least 180 ballistic missiles at Israel earlier this week, before Israel began targeting suburbs of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.
The organiser of a vigil at Melbourne’s Southbank to commemorate hostages who were still held in Gaza, says the location is symbolic.
Joel Kuper explained the Southbank location of the vigil was held at one end of the immigration bridge.
Friends Susie Davis (left) and Shelley Kaplan (right) attending the vigil in Southbank on Sunday.Credit: Bridie Smith
“We are at one end of the immigration bridge. It symbolises what Australia stands for but also that we are not safe to cross that bridge. We are on the outside.”
He said while the focus of the vigil was on the more than 100 hostages still being held in Gaza, there was also a desire to normalise the gathering of Jewish Australians in Melbourne.
“We have been in hiding. It’s been a year, and we want to come out now.”
Friends Susie Davis and Shelley Kaplan came to the vigil because they wanted to connect and to have a presence in the city.
“We had felt that we had to do everything in Caulfield but we don’t and that’s why we wanted to come to the city,” Kaplan said.
“It’s saying ‘yes, it’s safe for us’.”
Davis, who attended her first rally with her parents in the 1970s, said she gained a sense of solidarity, support and strength.
Both said returning the Israeli hostages held in Gaza was their main motivation for joining the vigil.
At least one person has been arrested by NSW Police during the pro-Palestine rally today.
Police confirmed a person was arrested for carrying an Israeli flag which included a Nazi swastika rather than a Star of David.
It is an offence to display Nazi symbols in NSW. The offence carries a maximum penalty of 12 months imprisonment or an $11,000 fine.