Thousands rally in Sydney, Melbourne to protest Nasrallah assassination

Mourners have expressed sorrow over Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's martyrdom at Australian protests held in Sydney and Melbourne.

Nasrallah was martyred after Israeli regime forces bombarded a Beirut suburb using US-made weapons and munitions. He led Hezbollah for more than three decades.

Mourners in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday held placards of Nasrallah's image while waving the flag of Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement.

Demonstrators demanded an end to the violence in West Asia following a dramatic escalation in the fighting between the Israeli regime forces and Hezbollah for showing solidarity with and support to Palestinians since the Tel Aviv war machine unleashed its genocidal war against the besieged Gaza Strip in October.

Some mourning protesters gathered at Sydney's Town Hall cried as they asked for an end to the bloodshed in the Middle East.

"Very devastated, very heartbroken, just a lot of emotion and I just felt like I had to come here today to just show my solidarity and show my respects to him and what he was fighting for," said one protester at the rally.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said the total number of people killed in almost a year of Israelis' brutal strikes on Lebanon has reached 1,670.

Elsewhere in Canberra, Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Sunday repeated the federal government’s call for a ceasefire.

Senator Wong called on Tel Aviv to “listen to the international community”, urging de-escalation and restraint in order to prevent further loss of life and regional escalation.

She said all parties needed to end the violence and follow international rules of law, insisting that the Israeli regime leaders “must comply with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice”.

“The continued retribution … will not bring peace and it will not bring security,” she pointed out.

Thousands join Paris rally against strikes on Gaza, Lebanon

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Paris on Saturday to demand an end to the Israeli violence against Lebanon and Gaza.

However, the rallies also raised eyebrows over pro-Israeli politicians in Australia as Hezbollah has been labeled a terrorist organization in the West. 

Australia’s Immigration Minister Tony Burke quickly condemned the pro-Hezbollah rallies, threatening to cancel the visas of foreign residents.

Taking part in any rally “draws the immediate attention of our security agencies. There is a higher level of scrutiny if anyone is on a visa. I have made clear from day one that I will consider refusing and cancelling visas for anyone who seeks to incite discord in Australia,” Burke warned.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns claimed he understood the magnitude of the fatal conflict going on in the Middle East, however, people “should not be importing conflict or radical ideologies from the region into our society”.

“No one wants to see a further escalation, or the loss of innocent civilian lives,” he said. “Our state has shown great resilience as a multicultural society throughout these times of conflict, but our social cohesion is not something we can afford to be taken for granted.”

Liberal Party senator James Paterson said it was “disturbing to see symbols of a listed terrorist organization, Hezbollah, prominently displayed on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney today”.

Paterson cited a code of an offense related to displaying any symbols associated with organizations labeled as “terrorists”.

“This is a clear contravention of 80.2HA of the Commonwealth Criminal Code. It’s time for police to enforce the law,” he wrote on social media.

In the meantime, similar pro-Hezbollah rallies demanding an end to the Israeli regime's brutal violence have been held in other countries across the globe.

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