Thousands of police officers have been deployed to patrol Melbourne suburbs to tackle what Chief Commissioner Shane Patton describes as a “huge rise” in antisemitism across Victoria.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian state committed more police to investigate a spate of antisemitic crimes, officials said on Tuesday after a childcare center was torched near a Sydney synagogue.

Australian police believe explosives found on Sydney’s outskirts were evidence of a deadly escalation in a campaign of antisemitic arson and graffiti crimes that has been waged in major cities for months.

SYDNEY: Australian authorities said Wednesday (j=Jan 29) they had seized explosives stored in a caravan in greater Sydney possibly intended for a "mass casualty" anti-Semitic attack.

Authorities in Sydney are investigating whether explosives discovered in a caravan were intended for an antisemitic attack.The explosives could have caused a 40-meter-wide blast and

Australian detectives are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit antisemitic attacks in the country, police said.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian detectives are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit antisemitic attacks in the country, police said on Wednesday.

Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, emphasized that the operation targeting these antisemitic crimes is “just getting started.”

Australian authorities say they are investigating links to overseas actors as they crack down on antisemitic violence.

Australian police say they suspect explosives stashed on Sydney’s outskirts were evidence of a deadly escalation in a campaign of antisemitic arson and graffiti crimes that has been waged in major cities for months.

Australia has been grappling with a spate of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in late 2023.

Sydney restaurateur Judith Lewis couldn’t save the mezuzah, a framed parchment inked with Hebrew prayers, that was hanging in her family’s café when arsonists set it alight in the early hours one Sunday in late October.