Australian police said Monday, December 9, they are hunting for three suspects linked to a Melbourne synagogue blaze, which authorities have designated as a terrorist act.
Mask-wearing arsonists set fire to the Adass Israel Synagogue before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building but causing no serious injuries. The fire sparked widespread condemnation, including an accusation from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it was linked to “anti-Israel” sentiment from within Australia’s center-left Labor government.
Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference on Monday. Investigations over the weekend had made “significant progress,” Patton said, declining to provide further details of the operation.
Officials from the federal and state police as well as Australia’s intelligence agency met Monday and concluded that the fire was “likely a terrorist incident,” the police chief said.
A federal police taskforce targeting anti-Semitism
“This was a shocking incident to be unequivocally condemned. There is no place in Australia for an outrage such as this,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Friday. “To attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values. To attack a synagogue is an act of antisemitism, is attacking the right that all Australians should have to practice their faith in peace and security,” he added.
On Monday, the Prime Minister announced Australia was launching a federal police taskforce targeting anti-Semitism. “Anti-Semitism is a major threat and anti-Semitism has been on the rise,” Albanese said, citing the synagogue blaze and recent vandalism.
The fire in the Adass Israel Synagogue is an escalation in targeted attacks in Australia since the war began between Israel and Hamas last year. Cars and buildings have been vandalized and torched around Australia in protests inspired by the war.
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