Sydney, Melbourne free Palestine rally: Anti-Israel protesters gather as ceasefire looms

The Sydney rally, organised by the Palestine Action Group Sydney, gathered at Hyde Park at 1pm, demanding an end to what it called Israel’s “massacre” in the Gaza.

“We need everyone to help us spread the word and convince more and more people to take a stand and fight to stop this genocide,” the group said on Facebook.

A mass of Palestinian flags were seen waving in the hot sun and people with black shirts reading: “Stop the Genocide”.

A boy is also seen carrying a heap of towels wrapped in a bedsheet marked with red colours to represent the body of a dead Palestinian child.

Another sign from the rally reads: “Queer Jews Against Another Holocaust”.

A man at the rally could be seen with a shirt that reads: “from the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”, a regular pro-Palestine slogan that some critics interpret as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state.

In Melbourne, the marchers gathered at the State Library.

“Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip for over a month. Thousands of Palestinian men, women and children have been killed, and thousands more are injured,” Free Palestine Melbourne said on Facebook.

“All this is a continuation, in horribly escalated form, of the 75 years of war that Israel has waged on the Palestinian people, including 16 years of brutal siege on Gaza.”

Israel left the Gaza strip in 2005 and terror group Hamas seized control of the densely populated slip of land, murdering Palestinian opponents to its regime.

Photos from the Melbourne rally show Palestinian flags marked out with bloody fists and messages scrawled on red, white and green hearts reading: “end the siege of Gaza” and “shame Israel shame”.

Another sign suggests Israel has played the “victim” in world history, reading: “sorry Israel, your victim card is declined”.

Another sign bears images of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and Jewish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next to each other, with the phrase: “same s**t, different a**hole”.

Adolf Hitler led the Nazi war machine that slaughtered six million Jews in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

The police have allocated substantial resources to the rallies to maintain public safety.

Rallygoers are demanding a ceasefire to the war and Sunday’s marches coincide with a possible agreement between Israel and Hamas to cease hostilities for a five-day period.

US media outlet The Washington Post reports the US-brokered ceasefire would allow both sides to free female and child hostages.

The most recent outbreak in war began on October 7, when Hamas butchered hundreds of Israeli civilians, including the elderly, women and children, in a surprise attack on the Jewish state.

The terrorists kidnapped 240 Israelis, holding them hostage in Gaza.

Israel responded with force, bombing the slip of land.

The bombing campaign, though directed at Hamas fighters, has resulted in thousands of Palestinian deaths, including children and Palestinian men and women who are not associated with Hamas.

The contest has triggered furious in Australia, with multiple pro-Palestine rallies in all major cities across the country.

Some of the rallies have exhibited anti-Semitic sentiments, including a rally at the Sydney Opera House two days after the Hamas attack during which a group of men chanted “f**k the Jews” and “gas the Jews”.