Fired-up Australia kicks off new year, while some governments ban festivities because of Gaza

Australia and Japan gleefully kicked off new-year celebrations on the other side of the globe Sunday morning — even as the war in Gaza led some governments to ban festivities. 

More than 1 million revelers were treated to a 12-minute fireworks display near the Sydney Harbor Bridge, some watching from boats floating in the Australian city’s harbor. 

“It’s total madness,” German tourist Janna Thomas said after waiting all day for the spectacle. “It’s not so easy to find a good place to sit, but the view is incredible.”

In Auckland, crowds gathered around a brightly lit 1,000-foot tower to count down to 2024, setting the stage for daylong celebrations to come as 2024 arrives across the globe.

Japan rang in the new year with temple bells sounding out at the Tsukiji Temple in Tokyo, with celebrants treated to hot milk and corn soup as they lined up to strike the bells.

More celebrations will follow throughout the day as the year arrives across the globe — culminating with the annual Times Square celebration in the Big Apple. 

Still, the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is casting a long shadow over the typically festive arrival of the new year.

Pakistan banned celebrations there in a “show of solidarity with the oppressed people of Gaza,” Prime Minister Anwaar-up-Haq Kakar announced. 

Kakar said during a televised address that Pakistan’s citizens were instead urged to “observe simplicity” and that the government has “completely banned all kinds of events regarding the New Year celebrations.”

A similar ban was announced in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates, as “a sincere expression of solidarity and humanitarian cooperation with our siblings in the Gaza Strip,” authorities there said. 

Celebrations are expected elsewhere in the region, though — including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi, The New Arab reported.

The Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel by Palestinian Hamas terrorists prompted Israel’s ferocious counter-offensive in the Gaza Strip — and pro-Palestinian protests across the globe.

The rallies have sparked governments to beef up the police presence at New Year’s Eve celebrations across the world — including in New York City’s five boroughs. 

Mayor Eric Adams said there had been no specific threats targeting the city’s Times Square celebration but that security would be heavily heightened with a “buffer zone” creating a police perimeter around the revelers.

French officials said 90,000 cops would be deployed there, with 6,000 focused on Paris, where an estimated 1.5 million people are expected to bring in the New Year.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said there was a “very high terrorist threat.”

German police are also expected to be out in force, with about 4,500 on duty to stifle any potential unrest — one year after riots marred the start of 2023 in Berlin.

With Post wires