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.

and one person suffered burn injuries in the fire that was set at a Melbourne synagogue in December. Acting New South Police Wales Police Commissioner Peter Thurtell said Strike Force Pearl ...

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

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.

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

Australian police are investigating whether explosives found in a caravan days ago in Sydney, the capital city of Australia's state of New South Wales (NSW), were intended to be used in an antisemitic attack.

Crimes against Jewish communities have been escalating across Australia. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his government's response to such acts.

The explosives located in a caravan could have caused a 'potential mass casualty event', authorities have said.

"That caravan contained an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of antisemitic attack," he told a news conference.