A child care center in Sydney, Australia was set ablaze early on Tuesday and antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall, in the latest in a spate of antisemitic attacks in Australia in the last few months, authorities said.
There were no injuries reported in the 1 a.m attack, although the building was badly damaged.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said the perpetrators would be caught and that police had put more resources into investigating hate crimes, amid a groundswell in public anger that the attackers in the series of attacks still remain at large.
“The kind of people who would ... attack a fellow Australian whom they don’t know because of their race or religion, it is completely disgusting and these bastards will be rounded up by the police,” Minns said during a media briefing.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the latest attack as “a vicious crime.”
The Australian leader, who is facing a national election due by May, has been widely criticized as “weak” by both the opposition Conservatives and the Jewish community for not doing enough to prevent hate crimes against Jews, and for his criticism of Israel during the 15-month war against Hamas in Gaza.
The overnight attack was the latest in a series of incidents targeting the Australian Jewish community in recent months.
Last week, a Sydney home that was previously owned by a senior Jewish community leader was vandalized and two cars were set on fire.
Earlier this month, vandals defaced two Sydney synagogues with Nazi symbols within 24 hours.
Last month, arsonists torched a Melbourne synagogue.
About 117,000 Jews live in Australia, who make up less than half a percent of its’ 25 million residents. Sydney and Melbourne are home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population.
