Police defend actions after violent clashes with Herzog protesters in Sydney
Michaela Whitbourn - February 10, 2026
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Dozens of protesters have been arrested in violent clashes with police as thousands demonstrated against visiting Israeli President Isaac Herzog, hours after a court rejected a bid to strip police of enhanced powers granted during his time in Sydney.
The crowd on Monday night, estimated at 6000, waved Palestinian flags and held signs critical of Herzog as they surrounded Town Hall, before 27 were arrested, 10 of them for allegedly assaulting police.
In a press conference late Monday night, NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna claimed those arrested were caught up in a “contagion of groupthink”.
“Officers were being threatened, jostled and assaulted, and we had to enact powers to move that crowd on and direct them out of the CBD,” McKenna said.
It led to “a number of melees, rolling fights at times, and violent behaviour from members of that crowd”, he said.
Punches were thrown and capsicum spray was used on dozens of demonstrators as police moved the crowd away. Others were thrown to the ground, and some were trampled as police officers and horses pushed the crowd towards Bathurst Street.
The clashes came as protesters sought to march towards NSW Parliament, while police blocked the crowd and ordered them to disperse.
Protesters helped each other flush their eyes, while others were pinned to the ground or dragged into police vans.
In the moments before the rally descended into chaos and violence, Palestine Action Group (PAG) spokesman Josh Lees addressed the angry crowd.
“We’re going to take back our streets and demand freedom,” he declared.
“People are getting arrested and pepper sprayed in front of us … this is a bloody outrage.”
Lees told the Herald people were “bashed” and “attacked” by police as they tried to leave after being told to disperse.
“The police just started charging in with horses and pepper spray and [were] bashing people and arresting people, and they were telling everyone to disperse, but they couldn’t go anywhere because they were boxed in on all sides,” he said.
“All they had to do was facilitate a march.”
McKenna said he witnessed “the restraint” of the police, and protesters were given more than enough time to disperse.
“Lots of people did, in fact, leave,” he said.
“Those who didn’t leave, if they got caught up in something, well, they made their choice.”
He accused those who spoke at the event of inciting the crowd and said the previously co-operative relationship police had with the PAG organisers had changed as a result of the evening’s “disappointing” events.
“They’ve got some work to do now to build some trust back,” McKenna said.
The group plans to protest outside a Sydney police station on Tuesday afternoon.
In video posted to social media, a group of men pausing to pray are dragged away by advancing police.
The shocking footage was deeply disturbing and entirely unacceptable, the Australian National Imams Council said in a statement.
“Police are entrusted to protect the community, uphold public safety, and de-escalate tensions, not to interfere with religious worship or inflame an already sensitive situation.”
Another video showed multiple police throwing punches at a man with his hands raised.
People should not judge the videos “out of context, on their own” too quickly, McKenna said.
He said he was yet to review police body-worn video of the events.
“If things need to come out for the right reasons, we’ve got no problems in sharing,” he said.
“In the context of thousands of people being in a very confined space where leaders get up and say ‘let’s do the wrong thing, let’s march’ … those officers are in a very vulnerable, precarious position.
“I absolutely think the police actions were justified tonight,” McKenna said.
NSW Greens MP Sue Higginson, who attended the protest, said police were “brutal, unnecessary and violent”.
“I saw young women being thrown against the wall, Aboriginal people detained and tear gas used indiscriminately,” she said.
“The police were clearly emboldened to be violent. There is a lot of footage of dreadful police violence.”
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