Chants of "free Palestine" rang out at Canberra's Garema Place on Friday evening as more than 200 people gathered in response to events in Gaza this week.
Diana Abdel-Rahman of Palestine Action Group Canberra organised the rally in the hope of ensuring people heard facts rather than hearsay about the conflict.
"We want to debunk all the fabricated stories and [show them] how they might be able to support and stop this from ever happening again," Ms Abdel-Rahman said.
Ziad Z attended the rally and said he was concerned for his family members living in Palestine. Yesterday, his uncle's neighbour's house was demolished.
"In the West Bank there is like just an uneasy calm. They are worried about what's going to happen because it could very easily escalate to them," he said.
Ziad felt frustrated about politicians expressing support for Israeli victims without acknowledging Palestinian casualties in the ongoing conflict.
"Hamas did this for a reason. I don't condone what they did. They shouldn't kill civilians. But it happened for a reason and to just ignore the history and say, 'No, this is what they did so Israel has a right to defend themselves' isn't very helpful to finding a proper solutions to the conflict," he said.
Dickson College student Celeste Rothschild has Jewish ancestry and wanted to show her support to Palestinians, saying: "There have been times in history where Palestinians and Jewish people have lived peacefully. And despite the way that it's been portrayed in the media, there are lots of different members of the Jewish community who do support Palestine and stand in solidarity with Palestine."
Families with young children and university students attended the rally, as did about a dozen police officers.
Other pro-Palestine rallies are planned in other Australian cities on Sunday.
NSW Premier Chris Minns hoped the gathering in Sydney would remain peaceful after protesters chanted anti-Israel and anti-Jewish rhetoric on Monday night on the Sydney Opera House steps.
"There is, of course, a right to protest in NSW, but there's also a right to be free from intimidation, from incitement to violence, from racial vilification or actual violence in NSW," Mr Minns said.
Ms Abdel-Rahman said all of the rallies she had organised in Canberra had been peaceful.
"Out of the last ... 50 rallies that I've done, I've been doing it about 35 years, it's always been respectful," she said.
