'Hard to describe': Melbourne Jewish community marks October 7

Melbourne's Jewish community has honoured those murdered in a deadly assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, with some saying their pain remains hard to describe.

Three years ago, several thousand Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel on a Jewish holiday and killed more than 1,200 civilians and took more than 250 people hostage.

At a commemoration service at the Beth Weizmann Jewish Community Centre in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield today, attendee Atida Lipshatz said the impact of the horrifying events had been immense.

"It's so hard to describe that pain. There's the before and there's the after," she told the ABC.

"Our lives all changed to know how much hatred there is against us."

President of the Jewish Museum of Australia, Gideon Klein, said the world changed on October 7, 2023 "in a very profound way for lots of people".

"There's been a lot of casualties, not only for Israelis but also on the Palestinian side, and a lot of trauma," he said.

"We've certainly seen an incredible amount of fraying of social cohesion here in Victoria, as well as around the country."

He said the terrorist attack in December last year at Bondi Beach was impossible to separate from what happened in Israel.

Similar events have been held nationally today, including in Sydney.

Organiser of the Caulfield event and chief executive of Zionism Victoria, Ilan Rimer, said people were still grieving, tired and anxious.

"There is some hope still that things can be turned around in Australia after we've seen an explosion of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, but it's a real mixture of all those feelings put together."

He said October 7 should be a date focused on the atrocities against Israel.

"For those wishing to memorialise others, there are hundreds of other days to pick from," Mr Rimer said.

October 7 also a key date for Palestinians, activists say

Also today, a small number of demonstrators gathered in support of Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered retaliatory attacks by Israel in response to the Hamas attacks, and to continue ongoing calls for a ceasefire.

The Gaza Health Ministry, a body under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered by the United Nations as reliable, has said more than 74,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict.

Activist Tasnim Sammak from Free Palestine Coalition Naarm said she had lost more than a dozen family members in Gaza.

"We're continuing to see the mass murder and destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza," she said.

She said many Jewish people were sympathetic to the Palestinian perspective.

"The survivors [in Gaza] are living in tents, trapped and without access to basic aid for their basic needs," she said.