Shock images emerge of toddler wearing Hezbollah T-shirt at Sydney protest
Images have surfaced of a toddler at a pro-Palestinian protest held in Sydney wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Hezbollah flag.
NSW
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Images have surfaced of a toddler at a pro-Palestinian protest held in Sydney on Sunday wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Hezbollah flag.
This comes amid revelations a 13-year-old boy also attending the protest was pepper sprayed by police.
Other young children at the protest were also seen holding pictures of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah was killed on Friday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s “central headquarters” in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.
NSW Police have confirmed a 13-year old boy protesting at Sunday’s rally near Town Hall was hit with pepper spray after police attempted to confiscate a Hezbollah flag being held by three nearby protesters.
NSW Police have confirmed that at 3.45pm on Sunday pepper spray was used on protesters when they attempted to seize the flag from an adult male protester.
“When police attempted to speak with the male, they were met with an aggressive group of male protesters,” a NSW Police spokesperson said.
“Police used a short burst of OC spray to disperse these males.
“The deployment of OC spray had an immediate effect and the group dispersed.
“Police extracted themselves from the crowd and removed the flag.”
Police said shortly after a young male was identified as showing signs of contamination from the pepper spray.
“He received medical treatment from the PAG medical team and left with his family,” the spokesperson said
“No further persons were identified to police as having secondary contamination of OC.”
Legal Observers NSW, a grassroots group that monitors police action at protests, claim officers sprayed the crowd “indiscriminately” in an attempt to confiscate the Hezbollah flag from a demonstrator.
“The actions of police in attempting to pull a Hezbollah flag off protestors created an altercation with the crowd which led to the deployment of pepper spray,” a Legal Observers NSW spokesperson said.
“Police did not provide either justification before attempting to remove the flag from the person.”
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Originally published as Shock images emerge of toddler wearing Hezbollah T-shirt at Sydney protest
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