National student strikes were held in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane and Wollongong on Thursday to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
About 300 people gathered in central Melbourne, with one speaker accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong of having '"the blood of Gaza" on their hands.
"Thousands of children, hundreds of thousands of people are slowly starving to death in a man-made famine," she told the crowd outside the State Library.
The demonstrators marched through the street holding signs and chanting "Israel out of Gaza" and "Israel out of West Bank".
They staged a sit-in at the corner in front of Flinders Street Station, blocking the intersection to traffic.
Police tried to open the road and removed protesters who refused to move.Â
Five protesters were arrested and are expected to be charged on summons, police said.
A man with an Australian flag was also moved on for breaching the peace.
Tens of thousands of Australians took part in pro-Palestine protests at the weekend, including at least 90,000 who rallied at the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Brisbane's Story Bridge could be the next monument to host a historic march after Justice For Palestine told Queensland police of their intention to walk across it on August 24.
Australia has begun co-ordinating with other nations as France, Canada and the UK prepare to recognise the state of Palestine at a United Nations meeting in September.
The federal government has been hesitant to commit to a deadline for recognition and the coalition has raised concerns such an action could be seen as a reward for designated terrorist organisation Hamas.
But Australia's former ambassador to Israel Peter Rodgers dismissed such arguments as "nonsensical".
"Not recognising a Palestinian state rewards Israel," he told ABC Radio.
"It rewards the government of Benjamin Netanyahu for ethnic cleansing and apartheid in the West Bank."
A genocide case has been brought against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which is yet to rule on the matter.
Mr Netanyahu's office called the allegations "false and outrageous", with his government repeatedly claiming it only targets Hamas and not civilians.
Violence in Gaza reignited after Hamas killed 1200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages on October 7, 2023.
Israel's military response has since killed 60,000 people, according to local health authorities.
More than 50,000 children have been killed or injured by Israel since October 2023, UNICEF said.
Mr Rodgers was one of many former Australian diplomats who signed an open letter to Mr Albanese calling on Australia to urgently recognise Palestinian statehood.
More than 140 of the 193 United Nations member states already recognise the state of Palestine, including European Union member states Spain and Ireland.
Mr Albanese has said the recognition of Palestine would need to guarantee Hamas plays no role in the future nation.
Hamas has effectively governed Gaza since violently defeating the political party Fatah, which now controls the Palestinian Authority that exercises partial civil control in the West Bank.
Mr Albanese spoke with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, reiterating Australia's commitment to a two-state solution in the Middle East that would allow Palestine and Israel to co-exist.
"The entire international community is distressed by what we're seeing happening in Gaza," he told reporters in Melbourne.
More than two million people in Gaza are now facing high levels of food insecurity, United Nations sources have found.
Israel denies there is starvation in the besieged strip despite international human rights groups decrying its offensive in Gaza and attributing deaths to starvation.
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