Arabic version: وقفة في ملبورن تحيي ذكرى مرور ثلاث سنوات على هجمات 7 أكتوبر

According to ABC News, about a thousand people attended a Caulfield vigil as Melbourne’s Jewish community marked three years since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. The commemoration was held at the Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre, where faces of victims and their stories were displayed.

Several thousand Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel during a Jewish holiday in 2023, killing more than 1,200 civilians and taking more than 250 people hostage. Attendee Atida Lipshatz said the impact of the attacks had been immense, describing a “before” and “after” and saying community members had learned “how much hatred there is against us.”

Gideon Klein, president of the Jewish Museum of Australia, said October 7 changed the world “in a very profound way for lots of people”. He said there had been casualties and trauma for Israelis and Palestinians, as well as an “incredible amount of fraying of social cohesion” in Victoria and elsewhere in Australia. Similar commemorations were held nationally, including in Sydney.

At the Caulfield event, Zionism Victoria chief executive Ilan Rimer said people remained grieving, tired and anxious. He said there was still hope that circumstances could be turned around in Australia after what he described as an explosion of antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and argued that October 7 should focus on atrocities against Israel.

Elsewhere in Melbourne, a small number of demonstrators gathered in support of Palestinians in Gaza and repeated calls for an Israeli ceasefire. Tasnim Sammak of Free Palestine Coalition Naarm said she had lost more than a dozen family members in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry, which is under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations, has said more than 74,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict.