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

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

Counter-terrorism police have taken over all the investigations into recent hate attacks on synagogues and other properties in the Australian state of New South Wales. Last Friday, the Allawah synagogue in Sydney was defaced in a separate incident by antisemitic graffiti.

Two cars were set ablaze and other vehicles were daubed with anti-Jewish slogans. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government convened a “national cabinet” with state leaders this week after a childcare centre near a synagogue in east Sydney was firebombed and defaced with an antisemitic slogan.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a snap cabinet meeting in response, where officials agreed to set up a national database to track antisemitic incidents. Thus far, the federal police taskforce,

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.