CANBERRA: Pro Palestine protesters climbed the roof of Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday and unfurled banners, one saying Palestine will be free, and accused Israel of war crimes, TV footage showed.
Footage showed four people dressed in dark clothes on the roof of the building, unfurling black banners including one reading “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a common refrain of Pro Palestine protesters.
One of the protesters began a speech using a megaphone accusing the Israeli government of war crimes, an accusation it rejects.
“We will not forget, we will not forgive and we will continue to resist,” the protester said.
A handful of police and security advised people not to walk directly under the protest at the main entrance to the building, but there appeared to be no immediate attempt to remove the protesters, a Reuters witness said.
“This is a serious breach of the Parliament’s security,” opposition Home Affairs spokesperson James Paterson said in a post on social media platform X.
“The building was modified at great expense to prevent incursions like this. An investigation is required.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas gunmen burst into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killed 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages back into Gaza, Israel says.
The offensive launched by Israel in retaliation has killed nearly 38,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and has left the heavily built-up coastal enclave in ruins.
Both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the early stages of the Gaza war, a UN inquiry found last month, saying that Israel’s actions also constituted crimes against humanity because of the immense civilian losses.
Pro Palestine protesters scale roof of Australia’s Parliament
https://arab.news/zw3n7
Pro Palestine protesters scale roof of Australia’s Parliament
Venezuela denounces ‘extremely serious military aggression’ by US
- The explosions come as US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a navy task force to the Caribbean, raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela
CARACAS: Loud explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling aircraft flyovers, were heard in Caracas around 2:00 am (0600 GMT) Saturday, an AFP journalist reported.
The explosions come as US President Donald Trump, who has deployed a navy task force to the Caribbean, raised the possibility of ground strikes against Venezuela.
Sounds of explosions were still being heard around 2:15 am, although their exact location was unclear.
Trump on Monday said the United States hit and destroyed a docking area for alleged Venezuelan drug boats.
The Republican leader would not say if it was a military or CIA operation or where the strike occurred, noting only that it was “along the shore.”
The attack would be the first known land strike on Venezuelan soil.
President Nicolas Maduro has neither confirmed nor denied Monday’s strike, but said Thursday he was open to cooperation with Washington after weeks of US military pressure.
The Trump administration has accused Maduro of heading a drug cartel and says it is cracking down on trafficking, but the leftist leader denies any involvement in the narcotics trade, saying Washington is seeking to overthrow him because Venezuela has the largest known reserves of oil on Earth.
Washington has ramped up pressure on Caracas by informally closing Venezuela’s airspace, imposing more sanctions and ordering the seizure of tankers loaded with Venezuelan oil.
For weeks Trump has threatened ground strikes on drug cartels in the region, saying they would start “soon,” with Monday being the first apparent example.
US forces have also carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers.
The administration has provided no evidence that the targeted boats were involved in drug trafficking, however, prompting debate about the legality of these operations.
The deadly maritime campaign has killed at least 107 people in at least 30 strikes, according to information released by the US military.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday declared a state of an emergency over what his goverment called an “extremely serious military aggression” by the United States on the capital Caracas.
Multiple explosions, accompanied by sounds resembling aircraft flyovers, were heard around the city, an AFP journalist reported.
“Venezuela rejects, repudiates, and denounces before the international community the extremely serious military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America against Venezuelan territory and people,” Maduro’s government said.
