Australian leaders on Tuesday urged calm and called for protests to remain peaceful after clashes between police and demonstrators opposing President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia erupted in Sydney.
Police said 27 people were arrested, including 10 for allegedly assaulting officers, after violence broke out on Monday evening when police moved in to clear thousands of protesters who had gathered near Sydney’s town hall.
Protesters, including an opposition lawmaker, said on Tuesday they had been assaulted by officers.
Herzog is visiting Australia this week at the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of a December 14 terror shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that killed 15.
The visit has attracted the ire of some people in Australia, who accuse Herzog of being complicit in civilian deaths in Gaza. Pro-Palestine, anti-Israel groups organized protests in cities and towns across the country on Monday evening.
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Albanese said he was “devastated” by the violence and urged protesters to express their views peacefully.
Jillian Siegel, Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism in Australia, listens to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speak to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, January 8, 2026. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)
“Australians want two things. They don’t want conflict brought here. They want killing to stop, whether it’s Israelis or Palestinians, but they do not want conflict brought here,” Albanese told radio station Triple M.
“The causes are not advanced by these sorts of scenes — they are undermined.”
There were no reports of serious injuries, New South Wales state police said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Herzog visited the Moriah College high school in Sydney, where, among other things, he spoke of the protests.
“I know that the demonstrators and protesters who are cursing us, saying the biggest lies and affirmations against our nation, do not want to hear this, but I believe that the silent majority of Australians definitely want to hear and move back on track,” he said, according to a statement from his office.
Police granted special powers
Thousands gathered in central Sydney on Monday to protest against Herzog’s visit.
People hold up placards during a protest rally against a four-day state visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, in Melbourne on February 9, 2026. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)
Police had been authorized to use rarely invoked powers during the protest, including directing crowds to move, restricting their entry to certain areas, and searching vehicles. A legal challenge to those restrictions was dismissed by a Sydney court on Monday. Herzog was not present at the protest site.
Television footage showed some protesters trying to push through blockades as officers forced them back. Some were seen lying on the ground while police tried to restrain them.
Police used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns defended police actions, saying officers were required to make rapid decisions in tense and volatile situations, and urged calm.
“I understand there’s criticisms of New South Wales Police, I just want to make it clear they were caught in an impossible situation,” he told a press conference.
First Lady Michal Herzog and President Isaac Herzog visit Moriah College in Sydney on February 10, 2026 (Maayan Toaf/GPO)
In a statement, the Palestine Action Group Sydney said protesters were unable to leave the event because they were surrounded by police on all sides.
“The police began charging the crowd with horses, indiscriminately pepper spraying the crowd, punching and arresting people,” the group said.
Abigail Boyd, an opposition Green lawmaker in the state parliament, said she had been punched by officers while attempting to vacate the site.
“I have a very sore arm and shoulder where they punched me. I’m really in shock,” she told a press conference.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said police actions were justified and that they showed restraint.
“Police did what they needed to do, which was to hold the line and then form and move the protesters back with a view to dispersing them,” he said. “Having an angry and violent mob marching on police is not a situation that I want our officers in.”
Police deploy pepper spray to disperse pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters taking part in a rally against President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia in Sydney on February 9, 2026. (Saeed Khan / AFP)
Josh Lees, the head of Palestine Action Group Sydney, said supporters of the group would rally outside police headquarters in the city on Tuesday evening in response to Monday’s clashes.
Herzog said at the outset of his visit that he had “come here in goodwill.”
He accused protesters of seeking to “undermine and delegitimize” Israel’s right to exist.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry found last year that Herzog was liable for prosecution for inciting genocide after he said all Palestinians — “an entire nation” — were responsible for the Hamas attack on Israel.
Its report was published after a two-year investigation by the commission following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, terror onslaught, to which it only made a fleeting reference, while not including any details on the attack that started the war in Gaza. In the shock attack, terrorists invaders killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and seized 251 as hostages.
Israel has “categorically” rejected the inquiry’s report, describing it as “distorted and false” and calling for the body’s abolition.
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