Protesters defiant as more Aussies return from Lebanon

Australians are being warned their window to leave Lebanon is closing as another Qantas repatriation flight heads for Sydney.

Up to 220 Australians and permanent residents are due to arrive home late on Saturday night after leaving Cyprus late on Friday.

Earlier repatriation flights have been full or close to, but the federal government is dismayed at the dwindling uptake of seats on flights leaving Lebanon for Cyprus.

Officials have warned no further flights out of the war-troubled nation are scheduled after Sunday.

Israel has intensified its bombing campaign in southern Lebanon and the capital Beirut as it attacks listed terror group Hezbollah, which has been firing rockets into Israel for months.

Its year-long war in Gaza also remains in the spotlight, with a vigil taking place at Federation Square in Melbourne on Friday night.

People gathered at the Free Palestine Melbourne event to remember the more than 40,000 Palestinians who have died in the conflict.

In Perth, pro-Palestine protesters promise to defy police bans on anti-Israel material on Saturday.

Friends of Palestine WA said police tried on three separate occasions last weekend to confiscate a banner that read “Israel kills kids: hold them accountable”.

The banner references Gaza health authorities’ estimates that more than 41,000 Palestinians, including 11,000 children, have been killed since the conflict escalated in October 2023.

Protest organiser Nick Everett said the banner “states the truth”.

“We won’t be cowered,” he said.

“We will march defiantly and speak truth to power as we have done almost every weekend for the past 12 months.”

WA Greens senator Jordan Steele-John and representatives of Perth’s Palestinian and Lebanese communities are expected to address the rally.

Similar rallies are expected in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide across the weekend.

Focus on those rallies has intensified since Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leaders, with symbolism and flags strikingly similar to the listed terror group’s own appearing at recent rallies.

Several items have been confiscated while a high-profile restaurateur on Friday apologised for displaying a swastika on a doctored Israeli flag at a Sydney rally.

As security conditions deteriorate in Lebanon, more than 5000 Australians have flagged their intent to leave with the federal government.

Some 2280 had left on government-assisted flights by Friday, most flying through to Australia, while the remaining 3000 have been offered seats on the six remaining flights.

The passengers are travelling for free on the government-chartered flights - something the opposition has criticised.

Liberal senator Simon Birmingham pressed on Friday for evacuees to be charged the equivalent of a commercial fare, except in cases of hardship, given they had been warned for months to leave Lebanon.

When the government said get out of somewhere, Australians needed to understand they “should heed those warnings, not wait for a possible free ticket home”, he said.