Hezbollah praises Australian protesters on October 7 anniversary

Hezbollah has praised Aussie protesters who turned out at pro-Palestine and pro-Lebanon rallies over the weekend.

Posting pictures from the rallies, which took place in Melbourne and Sydney on Sunday, the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group wrote through its news channel Al-Ahed English on Telegram: “From Australia to the world: Stop the ‘Israeli’ aggression on Lebanon”.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets ahead of the one year anniversary of October 7, with some openly celebrating Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

Signs around Hyde Park, where the Sydney protest started and ended, warned against displaying the Hezbollah flag, symbols and portraits of slain terror leader Hassan Nasrallah as it may “amount to a criminal offence”.

It came after a number of protesters were referred to federal authorities after protests the weekend prior, where some allegedly waved the Hezbollah flag and held photos of Nasrallah.

In an attempt to flout the terror symbol laws at the latest demonstrations, some protesters displayed signs with the silhouette of Nasrallah, or used Ned Kelly or Olympic-related flags featuring the Hezbollah colours of green and gold.

Victorian Police said four arrests were made, out of about 7000 attendees; while from the 10,000-strong crowd in Sydney NSW Police arrested one man and spoke to another in relation to the signs they were carrying.

Police say the Sydney man they arrested and charged was carrying an Israeli flag with a swastika in the middle of it, instead of the Star of David.

Anti-Israel memorials will be held in both Sydney and Melbourne today, billed as vigils, but police are on standby.

Meanwhile, an authorised ”outrage” rally is scheduled to take place at Lakemba, with the support of extremist group Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

It’s prompted renewed calls for the Australian Government to follow the United Kingdom’s lead and list the group as a terrorist organisation.

NSW Premier Chris Minns called the planned protests “grossly insensitive”, while his Victorian counterpart Jacinta Allan had a simple message to those planning to demonstrate: “Don’t”.