Anthony Albanese says the first anniversary of the 7 October attacks on Israel will carry “terrible pain”, including for the families of hostages “whose lives remain suspended in the fear and isolation of captivity”.
As Australian politicians prepare to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s assault on southern Israel, the prime minister released a video message declaring that “sorrow knows no boundaries and recognises no differences”.
In Monday’s video, Albanese recognised “the distress the conflict has caused here in Australia” and took the opportunity again to condemn “all prejudice and hatred” – something he has done repeatedly over the past year.
“Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day – and as a nation we say never again,” Albanese said.
The prime minister – who will join the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, at a commemoration in Melbourne on Monday – said it was a moment to “pause to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocity that reverberated around the globe”.
“October 7 is a day that carries terrible pain,” he said. “Over 1,200 Jews died – more than on any single day since the Holocaust.”
Albanese said he unequivocally condemned Hamas for killing women, men and children in their homes and at a music festival, characterising this as “brutality that was inflicted with cold calculation”.
“Today, we also think of the hostages whose lives remain suspended in the fear and isolation of captivity,” Albanese said.
“For their loved ones, this past year must have felt like an eternity – the agony of waiting and not knowing, or of having the terrible truth confirmed.”
Community organisations in Australia have documented sharp increases in antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hostility over the past 12 months.
Albanese said in his video message that there was “no place in Australia for discrimination against people of any faith”. He also reaffirmed “a fundamental principle of our shared humanity: every innocent life matters”.
“The number of civilians who have lost their lives is a devastating tragedy,” he said.
“Today, we reflect on the truth of our shared humanity, of the hope that peace is possible, and the belief that it belongs to all people.”
At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza begun in response to the 7 October attack, the territory’s health authorities said on Saturday.
The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, told the UN last month the death toll in Gaza included more than 11,000 children.
Pro-Palestine protesters who gathered in Sydney’s Hyde Park on Sunday chanted “ceasefire now”, while those who gathered in Melbourne’s CBD cried “there’s no shopping while bombs are dropping”.
The Albanese government has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and the release of hostages but has been facing political pressure from the Coalition and the Greens about its stance.
The government is increasingly concerned about the prospect of a regional war as Israel intensifies its military operations in Lebanon and considers a response to Iran.
Two charter flights from Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, to Cyprus on Saturday carried a total of 407 Australians. A further two such flights were scheduled to leave Beirut on Sunday.
Wong told the UN security council in New York late last month that Lebanon “cannot become the next Gaza” and Lebanese civilians “should not pay the price” of attacking Hezbollah.
In a pointed message to Israel, Wong said at the time: “War has rules – even when confronting terrorists; even when defending borders.”
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, declined to say on Sunday whether he believed Israel had complied with the laws of war, insisting that “all of that will ultimately be judged when the facts come out”.
“We are deeply anxious and concerned about the activities that have ensued in the course of the last 12 months which have seen such an extraordinary loss of innocent life in Gaza and we are now seeing that loss of life in Lebanon,” Marles told the ABC’s Insiders program.
The Coalition’s home affairs spokesperson, James Paterson, told Sky News the Labor government had “abandoned Israel at the UN” because it was worried about “the domestic political implications of standing with our friend and ally”.
Marles, Wong and the trade minister, Don Farrell, are due to attend a 7 October commemoration ceremony at the Israeli embassy in Canberra on Monday.
With Albanese attending a commemoration in Melbourne, he will be represented by the health minister, Mark Butler, at an event in Sydney.
