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Almost 350 Australians and their immediate family have touched down in Sydney on the first of the federal government's repatriation flights for those fleeing Lebanon.
More than 3700 Australians wanting to depart the increasingly unsafe Middle Eastern country are registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and 904 have already left Beirut Airport on assisted flights.
A sense of joy and relief spread through Sydney Airport on Monday night as the dozens of people, some with balloons, flowers or wearing pyjamas, waiting for their loved ones saw the plane from Cyprus via Doha had landed carrying 349 people.
"I'd like to thank the Australian government. They really did a very good job for us," one of the evacuees said.
"They bring us from Lebanon. I was under fire".
Another woman, who was holding a baby, struggled for words.
"I can't describe, you know. Every day I was there I was thinking if I'll make it," she said, through tears.
"Thanks God. Thanks God."
Foreign Minister Penny Wong welcomed the travellers home on social media and said another two assisted flights would leave Beirut for Cyprus on Monday (early Tuesday AEST).
READ MORE: Candlelight vigils mark October 7 anniversary across Australia
"We are encouraging people to get whatever commercial flights they can," NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said.
As evacuation efforts ramp up overseas, rallies have been held across Australia on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
The Israeli communities' cries were made loud and clear outside corridors of power in Canberra.
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"As an ambassador, as an Israeli, as a Jew and as a human being, it is sad," Israeli Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon said.
It was a solemn commemoration in Canberra but with rallies around the country, the majority of Australians are growing weary, with a new poll showing more than half the community oppose the marches.
Israel responded to the October 7 attack, in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1200 people, mostly civilians and abducted another 250, by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, displaced most of the territory's 2.3 million people and caused widespread hunger.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets, missiles and drones at Israel even after a wave of Israeli strikes in recent weeks killed most of its top command — including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah — and pounded large areas of Lebanon. Israel launched what has so far been a limited ground operation across the border last week.
At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.
An Israeli strike killed at least 10 firefighters, the latest in a series of strikes that have killed dozens of first responders, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry on Monday.
– Reported with Associated Press
