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SYDENY: Tens of thousands of people joined a pro-Palestinian rally in the business district of Australia’s most populous city, Sydney, on Sunday, organizers said, after a court this week blocked a move to hold the protest at the Sydney Opera House.

Around 27 protests took place across Australia on Sunday, including in Melbourne and Sydney, said the organizer. The organizers estimated a crowd of 30,000 at the Sydney rally. 
The rallies took place against the backdrop of Israeli troops pulling back under the first phase of a US-brokered agreement to end the war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of people and left much of the enclave in ruins.
Amal Naser, an organizer of the Sydney rally, said “even if the ceasefire holds, Israel is still conducting a military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.”

“The occupation as well as systemic discrimination against Palestinians living in Israel constitute an Apartheid system,” she said in a statement.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. footage showed protesters, many carrying Palestinian flags and wearing keffiyeh scarves, marching on closed city streets. Police said no arrests were made.
Pro-Palestinian protests have been common in Australia, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, since war in Gaza erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.
Gaza authorities say more than 67,000 people have been killed and much of the enclave flattened since Israel began its military response to the Hamas attack. 
Meanwhile, preparations were underway on Sunday to ramp up aid entering Gaza.
Egypt said it was sending 400 aid trucks into Gaza on Sunday. They will be inspected by Israeli forces before being allowed in.
Dozens of trucks crossed the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the coastal strip. The Egyptian Red Crescent said they carried medical supplies, tents, blankets, food and fuel. The trucks will head to the inspection area in the Kerem Shalom crossing for screening by Israeli troops.
Expanding Israeli offensives and restrictions on humanitarian aid have triggered a hunger crisis, including famine in parts of the territory.
The UN has said it has about 170,000 metric tonnes of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid ready to enter once Israel gives the green light.
Abeer Etifa, a spokeswoman for the World Food Programme, said workers were clearing and repairing roads inside Gaza on Sunday to facilitate delivery.
The fate of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli- and US-backed contractor that replaced the UN aid operation in May as the primary food supplier in Gaza, remains unclear.
Food distribution sites operated by the group in the southernmost city of Rafah and central Gaza were dismantled following the ceasefire deal, several Palestinians said on Sunday.
The foundation had been touted by Israel and the US as an alternative system to prevent Hamas from taking over aid. However, its operations were mired in chaos and hundreds of Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire while heading to its four sites.

LONDON: A Palestinian Ph.D student from Gaza who was awarded a University of Glasgow scholarship has described her heartbreak after her family was denied entry to Britain.
Manar Al-Houbi received confirmation of her successful scholarship application in May, The Guardian reported.
Her tuition fees as well as housing and living costs were covered by the tuition and a grant from the Council for At Risk Academics charity.
Al-Houbi completed visa applications for her family, but was told by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office last month that her family would be denied entry to the UK.
The scholarship “felt almost too good to be true,” the Ph.D student said.
Most international students in the UK are forbidden from bringing dependents with them, but full-time Ph.D students — such as Al-Houbi — are exempt from this rule, and can bring family members to Britain.
David Lammy, the deputy prime minister, said in a recent interview with the BBC, referring to Al-Houbi: “It’s important to understand that we are actually dependent on Israeli permissions to bring those people out, and that has not been easy to get.”
Israeli officials, however, have denied preventing Al-Houbi’s exit from Gaza.
She is now living with her family in a tent in Khan Younis. The family home in Rafah was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the early stages of the Israel-Hamas war.
“The fact that the UK government hasn’t even bothered to make a request on my family’s behalf is heartbreaking,” Al-Houbi told The Guardian.
Her Ph.D research is set to focus on using media and education to combat anti-women violence and promote peace efforts.
She hopes to return to Gaza after completing the program to teach and launch social programs.
Al-Houbi is “such an excellent candidate for a scholarship that she was able to pick the scheme that allows her to bring dependents,” said Prof. Alison Phipps, academic supervisor at the University of Glasgow.
“No parent should be forced to choose their studies over their family, not least when this is a firm criterion of the scholarship itself.”
An FCDO spokesperson said: “The government is working with universities to identify eligible students and to assist them to leave Gaza and take up their studies in the UK. This has been a highly complex process, but we have already successfully evacuated a number of students and expect further cohorts to arrive in the coming weeks.”
The first group of Palestinian university students from Gaza arrived in Britain last month after a sustained campaign led by academics and rights groups.
The CEO of the charity that awarded Al-Houbi her scholarship grant said his organization “is ready and waiting to support this family and we call on the UK government to support their evacuation immediately.”