The lights have now been turned off at the museum

Indigenous flag flews at half mast after the Voice to parliament referendum was defeated in a "thumping" result, with official numbers expected to widen even further as postal votes are counted.

Nine's Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher said the result was largely consistent with polling, but said the Yes campaign would be disappointed with the magnitude of the votes that flowed against the referendum.

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Of all the state and territories, the ACT was the only region to count a majority Yes vote.

Last night, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he respected the result.

"While tonight's result is not one that I had hoped for, I absolutely respect the decision of the Australian people," he said.

The Electoral Commission has the National result at 60.41 per cent voting No.

Only 39.59 per cent voted Yes, leaving a margin of more than 2.7 million votes.

With the postal vote count still to come in, that will likely increase too.

The referendum was defeated in every state.

Almost 7 in 10 Queenslanders voted No.

More than 64 per cent voted No in South Australia.

In WA the figure was 63 per cent No, with the Northern Territory voted No at 60 per cent.

NSW and Tasmania voted No with a 59 per cent majority, while 54.84 per cent of Victorians also voted No.

Only the ACT returned a Yes majority.

Nine's Chief Political Editor Charles Croucher said: "This was a comprehensive result across the board. NSW and Victoria were both in the 50-odds.

"That is a thumping in any measure."

Croucher said the "bigger picture" of the referendum wasn't drawn on state or political lines, but of generational.

"Those on the polling booths would say younger people were more inclined to vote Yes. The polling says that," he said.

"Then there's the thing – the defining battle is this idea of the 'streets verse the elites' – that's those that have verse those that haven't.

"Those wealthier educated suburbs vote yes, the Teal seats voted yes, and those outer Metropolitan regional seats in particular voted No."

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Croucher said the issue for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was addressing the issues which Australia has vocalised should take more prominence than the referendum.

"The one thing the Prime Minister has in his favour, which wasn't in his favour during the campaign, is that this is for many Australians a lower order issue," he said.

"Cost of living is the main thing at the moment.

"David Littleproud said on the show 10 minutes ago this won't be a factor in two weeks, three weeks at Christmas time when you are worried about what to buy for Christmas rather than how you voted in October."

READ MORE: How the Voice referendum unfolded

Croucher said all the commentary in the lead up to election about the legitimacy of votes made with "ticks" or "crosses" turned out to be a non-issue.

"One final point. For all the pearl-clutching and hyperventilating about ticks and and crosses, remember that from people who should know better," he said.

"The informal vote is a hair over 1 per cent. We are the envy of the world when it comes to elections. That's something we should be proud of."

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered for rallies in Australian cities, with the events ending peacefully according to police.

Large crowds took over the streets of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide with a heavy police presence.

However, no arrests were made.

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NSW Police assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke said over 6000 people gathered at the Sydney event.

Police had the option of seeking "extraordinary powers", after a rally outside the Opera House on Monday night.

"I am pleased to say that in the circumstances today people listened to ensure the behaviors that was seen last Monday, were not repeated," Cooke said,

"People listened to their own community."

Victoria Police said 10,000 people marched in Melbourne, with no arrests.

In Adelaide, a pro-Palestinian rally gathered in front of the State Parliament building.

Police escorted the crowd from North Terrace to Victoria square in Adelaide's CBD.

South Australia Police said the crowd behaved in a "safe, orderly and lawful manner."

Another event was held in Brisbane.

Earlier, NSW Premier Chris Minns pleaded for calm at the Sydney rally, warning any kind of vilification or violence would not be tolerated.

NSW Police Acting Commissioner David Hudson had backed police using the powers, which were first used during the 2005 Cronulla riots.

"I can indicate that the powers we are considering authorising will include any person who attends Hyde Park with the intention to assemble, and perhaps protest, will be subject to searching powers where we don't need reasonable cause to search," he said.

"We will also be demanding that they provide us with their identity and if they fail to do so it is an offence.

"These are extraordinary powers."

Originally planned as a march from Town Hall in Sydney, that event was changed to a "static rally" after organisers failed to submit a form for the protest, which needed to be lodged seven days in advance.

The organisers had condemned the anti semitic demonstrations seen earlier this week, saying they were carried out by a tiny minority of marchers.

Palestine Action Group Sydney said anyone planning a similar display would not be welcome at its rally.

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Former NSW police officer Peter Moroney told Weekend Today that it would be a "big logistical effort" for police.

"One of the main concerns is public safety. As we know and as we saw this week, these things can go from reasonably peaceful (but) can explode quickly and rapidly," he said.

"The main concern for police today is ensure that whoever attends, attends for the right reasons and sticks within the parameters of what we would expect decent behaviour."

Officers were able to stop and search attendees and take down their names and address under the powers.

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In Melbourne's CBD, supporters gathered for a rally outside the Victorian State Library.

Thousands of people were among the crowd waving Palestinian flags and chanting.

The rally then moved towards the Victorian State Parliament.

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The incident was captured on video and quickly went viral on social media.

Two men have been charged with firearm-related offences.

Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians faced a deepening struggle for food, water and safety on Sunday and braced for a looming invasion a week after Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on Israel.

While hundreds of thousands sought to heed Israel’s order to evacuate the north, others huddled at hospitals there.

Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of US warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza’s border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the militant group.

READ MORE: Pro-Palestine rallies end peacefully

A week of blistering airstrikes have demolished entire neighborhoods but failed to stem militant rocket fire into Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted, making this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for Palestinians.

The death toll on Sunday surpassed that of the third war between Israel and Hamas, in the summer of 2014, when 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed, according to UN figures.

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That war lasted six weeks, and 74 people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.

In Israel, pathologists and others at a military base worked through the Jewish Sabbath to identify the more than 1,300 Israelis and others killed in Hamas's October 7 assault.

This is the deadliest war for Israel since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.

Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City in the north and renewed warnings on social media, ordering more than 1 million Palestinians — almost half the territory's population — to move south.

The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a major campaign against Hamas militants in the north, including in what it said were underground hideouts in Gaza City.

Hamas urged people to stay in their homes.

The UN and aid groups say such a rapid exodus, along with Israel’s complete siege of the 40-kilometre-long coastal territory would cause untold human suffering.

The World Health Organization said the evacuation “could be tantamount to a death sentence” for the more than 2,000 patients in northern hospitals, including newborns in incubators and people in intensive care.

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Gaza's hospitals are expected to run out of fuel for emergency generators within two days, according to the UN, which said that that would endanger the lives of thousands of patients.

Gaza was already in a humanitarian crisis due to a growing shortage of water and medical supplies caused by the Israeli siege, which has also forced electrical plants to shut down without fuel.

With some bakeries closing, residents complained of being unable to buy bread for their children.

In Gaza City, Haifa Khamis al-Shurafa crowded into a car with six family members, fleeing to the south in the darkness.

“We don’t deserve this,” Shurafa said, before leaving her home city. “We didn’t kill anyone.”

READ MORE: Gazans run out of time after Israel's evacuation deadline

The Israeli military said “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had heeded the warning and headed south.

It gave Palestinians a six-hour window that ended on Saturday afternoon to travel safely within Gaza along two main routes, but has not set a firm deadline for the evacuation.

Hundreds of relatives of the estimated 150 people captured by Hamas in Israel and taken to Gaza meanwhile gathered outside the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, demanding their release.

“This is my cry out to the world: Please help bring my family, my wife and three kids,” said Avihai Brodtz of Kfar Azza.

Many expressed anger toward the government, saying they still have no information about their loved ones.

In a televised address Saturday night, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields.

“We are going to attack Gaza City very broadly soon,” he said, without giving a timetable for the attack.

The military said on Sunday an airstrike in southern Gaza had killed a Hamas commander blamed for the killings at Nirim, one of several communities Hamas had attacked in southern Israel.

Israel said it struck over 100 military targets overnight, including command centers and rocket launchers.

Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves and massed troops and tanks along the border with Gaza. Israelis living near the Gaza border, including residents of the town of Sderot, continued to be evacuated.

Militants in Gaza have fired over 5,500 rockets since the hostilities erupted, many reaching reaching deep into Israel, as Israeli warplanes pound Gaza.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said late on Saturday (local time) that the US was moving a second carrier strike group, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the eastern Mediterranean, in a show of force meant to deter any allies of Hamas, such as Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, from seeking to widen the war.

Hamas remained defiant.

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In a televised speech on Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh, a top official, said that “all the massacres” will not break the Palestinian people.

An Israeli airstrike near the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people and wounded another 80, Gaza health authorities said.

Most of the victims were women and children, the authorities said.

Doctors from Kamal Edwan Hospital shared footage of charred and disfigured bodies.

It was not clear how many Palestinians remained in northern Gaza by Saturday afternoon, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

An estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in one week, she said.

At Gaza City’s main hospital, al-Shifa, a crowd of men, women and children that medical officials estimated at 35,000 crammed into the hospital's lobby and bloodied hallways and under the trees on the hospital grounds, hoping the facility would be spared in the coming attack.

“People think this is the only safe space after their homes were destroyed and they were forced to flee,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a Health Ministry official.

Basic necessities were running out because of the siege, which Israel has said will only be lifted when the captives are returned.

Water has stopped coming out of taps across the territory.

Amal Abu Yahia, a 25-year-old pregnant mother in the Jabaliya refugee camp, said she waited anxiously for the few minutes when contaminated water trickles from the pipes in her basement.

She rations it, prioritising her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.

She said she is drinking so little herself, she only urinates every other day.

Near the coast, the only tap water is contaminated with Mediterranean Sea water because of the lack of sanitation facilities.

Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, said his neighbors in Gaza City have taken to drinking the salt water.

The Israeli military’s evacuation order demands the territory’s entire population cram into the southern half of Gaza as Israel continues strikes, including in the south.

The Hamas communications office said Israel has destroyed over 7,000 housing units so far.

Rami Swailem said he and at least five families in his building decided to stay put in his apartment near Gaza City.

“We are rooted in our lands,” he said. “We prefer to die in dignity and face our destiny.”

Others were looking desperately for ways to evacuate.

“We need a number for drivers from Gaza to the south, it is necessary #help,” read a post on social media.

The UN refugee agency for Palestinians expressed concern for those who could not leave, “particularly pregnant women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities.”

The agency also called for Israel to not target civilians, hospitals, schools, clinics and UN locations.

Al-Shifa hospital was receiving hundreds of wounded every hour and had used up 95 per cent of its medical supplies, hospital director Mohammad Abu Selim said.

Water is scarce and the fuel powering its generators is dwindling.

“The situation inside the hospital is miserable in every sense of the word,” he said.

“The operating rooms don’t stop.”

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