SYDNEY (Reuters) -Thousands&nbsp;of&nbsp;Australians joined&nbsp;pro-Palestinian&nbsp;rallies&nbsp;on Sunday, despite police threats to curb them amid tension after the bloody Hamas incursion into Israel eight days ago.
Nations across the developed world are clamping down on such&nbsp;protests&nbsp;out&nbsp;of concern the conflict could trigger violence at home, with France banning them for fear they could disturb public order.
Protesters waved Palestine flags and chanted "Free, free Palestine" as hundreds of police patrolled the area around one of the largest&nbsp;rallies&nbsp;in Sydney, capital of&nbsp;Australia's most populous state of New South Wales.
A police helicopter circled low&nbsp;over&nbsp;the event in the city's Hyde Park. About&nbsp;5,000 people attended, said the organisers, the Palestine Action Group, while a Reuters witness put the number at about&nbsp;2,000.
The rally was "peaceful so far", said a group spokesperson, Amal Naser, adding that police had not deployed special powers to stop and search&nbsp;protesters, a move they had considered for the first time in almost two decades.
Ayah, a&nbsp;Palestinian&nbsp;living in Sydney, said she was at the rally to "be peaceful, to support my country, nothing to do with burning flags".
Another&nbsp;protester, Mustafa, whose father left&nbsp;Gaza&nbsp;in 1976, attended with his three children.
"We are not against Jewish people," he said. "They have been in Palestine for a long time, side by side with the Muslims and the Christians, we are all&nbsp;Palestinians. We are against the Zionists."
Rally organisers said they planned to march through central Sydney next weekend.
Thousands&nbsp;also&nbsp;protested at&nbsp;pro-Palestine&nbsp;rallies&nbsp;in Adelaide, the capital of South&nbsp;Australia, and in the Victorian state capital of Melbourne, said the Guardian&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;news site.
An official of a Jewish group, the Executive Council of&nbsp;Australian Jewry, condemned the&nbsp;rallies&nbsp;taking place "just days" after the attack on Israel.
In a statement, Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the council, said some&nbsp;protesters were "chanting in euphemisms calling for Israel&rsquo;s destruction".
Sydney police arrested three men on Friday for delivering Nazi salutes&nbsp;outside the Jewish Museum of&nbsp;Australia, media said.&nbsp;Australia's intelligence chief has urged people to tone down rhetoric that could inflame tension.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith and Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Clarence Fernandez)

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Thousands in Australia turn out for pro-Palestinian rallies over Gaza