SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australians gathered for vigils on Monday to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel that sparked the war on Gaza, but events were muted after authorities warned of tighter security measures.
At Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach, participants carrying Israeli and Australian flags listened in silence as the names of the 101 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas were read out.
The Israeli-Hamas conflict has sparked protests from both Jewish and Palestinian groups around the world, including some in Australia, which has warned that the events could fuel tensions in the community and disrupt social harmony.
Some pro-Palestinian events planned in Australia to coincide with the anniversary were brought forward a day after talks with authorities, but pro-Israel groups went ahead with the events, from Bondi to Parliament House in Canberra, the capital.
“In Jewish tradition, we are forced to stop mourning a year after an event of trauma and loss, but it is impossible not to mourn when 101 Israelis remain in that hell,” said Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry . said to Bondi.
Ryvchin was referring to the hostages yet to be returned from the 250 seized by Hamas militants, in addition to the 1,200 Israelis killed in the country’s deadliest attack, according to Israeli figures.
At Parliament House, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott told an event organized by Christian group Never Again Is Now that he regretted the Palestinian civilian deaths but admired “the way Israel has been so incredibly fastidious in trying to avoid them”.
In a statement on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he condemned Hamas’s attack a year earlier, but added: “As we mourn and reflect, we also reaffirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity: every innocent life matters.”
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)