MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Arsonists extensively damaged a Melbourne synagogue on Friday in what Australia’s prime minister condemned as an antisemitic attack on Australian values.
The blaze 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.
A witness who had come to the synagogue to pray saw two masked men spreading a liquid accelerant with brooms inside the building at 4:10 a.m., officials said.
About 60 firefighters with 17 fire trucks responded to the blaze, which police said caused extensive damage.
Investigators have yet to identify a motive, but Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blamed antisemitism.
“This was a shocking incident to be unequivocally condemned. There is no place in Australia for an outrage such as this,” Albanese told reporters.
“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.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, writing on X, called the synagogue attack “abhorrent.”
“Antisemitism must be relentlessly confronted. I urge Australian authorities to act swiftly and ensure the despicable perpetrators are brought to justice,” he said.
A religious leader at the torched synagogue, Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann, described the arsonists as “thugs.”
“Tonight is the Sabbath. We must all go and find a sense of calmness, comradery and community by gathering for the Sabbath tonight and praying together as one community,” Klatmann told reporters outside the synagogue.
Federal law in January banned the Nazi salute and the public display of Nazi symbols in response to growing antisemitism.
The government appointed special envoys this year to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia in the community.
The Jewish envoy, Jillian Segal, a Sydney lawyer and business executive, said the Jewish community in Australia was “feeling ever more rattled by what is going on.”
“I'm very concerned. Here is one major escalation in terms of burning synagogues which has resonance as to what happened during the Holocaust,” Segal said.
Victoria state Premier Jacinta Allan noted in a statement that the synagogue was “built by Holocaust survivors.”
Many of the synagogue's original worshippers were post-World War II immigrants from Hungary.
Allan offered 100,000 Australian dollars ($64,300) to help repair the synagogue and said there would be an increased police presence in the area.
“Every available resource will be deployed to find these criminals who tried to tear a community apart,” Allan said.
“We stand against antisemitism now and forever,” she added.
Daniel Aghion, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the broader Australian community needed to condemn the arson attack.
“I've been getting phone calls this morning from the Hindu community, from other people, from good people who are prepared to stand up and that's my message for this morning to Australia, to the good people of Australia,” Aghion told reporters.
“Don't leave the Jewish people behind. Don't isolate us. Don't leave us exposed to the risk of attacks upon our religious institutions, our communal institutions. Stand with us. Stand against this hate. And stand against this kind of horrendous attack which should not occur on Australian soil,” he added.
Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann speaks to the media at the scene of a fire at Adass Israel Synagogue in the suburb of Ripponlea, Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (Con Chronis/AAP Image via AP)
Fire crew members and police officers work the scene of a fire at Adass Israel Synagogue in the suburb of Ripponlea, Melbourne, Australia, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (Con Chronis/AAP Image via AP)
Israeli forces have killed two Palestinian militants who carried out a deadly attack on a bus in the West Bank earlier this month.
The Israeli military said Thursday that the two men barricaded themselves in a structure in the West Bank village of Burqin and exchanged fire with Israeli troops before they were killed overnight. The army said a soldier was moderately wounded.
The military said Mohammed Nazzal and Katiba al-Shalabi were operatives with the Islamic Jihad militant group.
The Hamas militant group released a statement claiming the two men were members of its armed wing and praising the bus attack. Hamas and the smaller and more radical Islamic Jihad are allies that sometimes carry out attacks together.
The Jan. 6 attack on the bus carrying Israelis killed three people and wounded six others.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want it to form the main part of their future state.
Here's the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Although the ceasefire in Gaza has brought an influx of humanitarian aid and a rare respite from Israeli bombardment, it has done little to change the miserable conditions endured by most of the 2 million people displaced by fighting.
The winter weather has compounded the hardships of those eking out an existence in tattered tents and makeshift shelters. Heavy rains were flooding tents across the territory, leaving Palestinians shivering in the cold.
At one makeshift camp in the central city of Deir al-Balah, the downpour Thursday quickly soaked through flimsy tents that seemed to float on pools of muck. Some used sandbags to keep their tents from washing away, while others tried to clear the huge puddles of mud outside their shelters. Barefoot children trod through paths that had become filthy rivers. A cacophony of coughs emanated from every corner, raising concerns about the spread of illness.
Tareq Deifallah, a displaced resident in Deir al-Balah originally from Beit Hanoun, in northern Gaza, said water was seeping through his tent from all sides. He said “the truce is useless” when it came to changing his living conditions.
“Before the truce we were suffering, after the truce we are suffering, from the rain and the winter,” Deifallah said.
Monira Faraj, a mother of two young girls, said rain flooded her tent and soaked through her mattress as her family was sleeping.
“We’re afraid we’re going to drown if it becomes too much,” she said.
Residents of the tent camp said they had no choice but to stay put. Even though the ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that took effect Sunday allows Palestinians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes, those who set out to check on their houses in recent days said they found only ruins.
DAMASCUS, Syria — A commercial plane from Turkey landed in Damascus for the first time in 13 years on Thursday, Syrian state media said.
The Turkish Airlines plane flew from Istanbul to the Syrian capital, SANA reported, two weeks after the first international commercial flight landed, from Qatar, since former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s fall.
Ankara backed opposition groups in northwestern Syria that fought against Assad and his allies during the uprising-turned-conflict and never restored ties, even when most Mideast countries did in 2023.
Now Turkey, a key ally of the new authorities under the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, has expressed its intention to invest in Syria’s economy and help its ailing electricity and energy sectors.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s ambassador to the United States says the two countries are in talks about the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a deadline in the ceasefire with Hezbollah militants approaches. Israeli media have reported that Israel is seeking to postpone the completion of its pullout.
Michael Herzog said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio on Thursday that he believed Israel would “reach an understanding” with the Trump administration, without elaborating.
Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended more than a year of fighting linked to the war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces are supposed to complete their withdrawal from southern Lebanon by Sunday.
Israeli media have reported that Israel reached an understanding with the Biden administration on staying longer but that President Donald Trump is urging it to withdraw on time.
There was no immediate comment from the United States.
Israeli officials have said Lebanese troops are not deploying fast enough in the areas Israeli troops are supposed to vacate. Under the ceasefire, the Lebanese army is to patrol a buffer zone in southern Lebanon alongside United Nations peacekeepers.
Hezbollah has threatened to resume its rocket and drone fire if Israel does not withdraw on time.
The Al Jazeera news network says the Palestinian Authority arrested one of its reporters after preventing him from covering an Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank.
The Qatar-based news network reported Thursday that its reporter, Mohammed al-Atrash, was arrested from his home.
It said Palestinian security forces had earlier prevented him from reporting on a large Israeli military operation in Jenin, an epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent years. The Palestinian Authority launched its own crackdown on militants in the city late last year.
There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority.
Both Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority banned Al Jazeera last year. Israel accuses it of being a mouthpiece of Hamas over its coverage of the war in the Gaza Strip and says some of its reporters are also militants.
The pan-Arab broadcaster has rejected the allegations and accused both Israel and the Palestinian Authority of trying to silence critical coverage.
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and cooperates with Israel on security matters. It is unpopular among Palestinians, with critics portraying it as a corrupt and authoritarian ally of Israel.
UNITED NATIONS – Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations believes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington to meet President Donald Trump “in a few weeks.”
Danny Danon told reporters Wednesday: “I’m sure he would be one of the first foreign leaders invited to the White House.”
Danon said he expects their discussions to include the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and the release of hostages taken during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel.
FILE - Israeli soldiers take up positions next to the Philadelphi Corridor along the border with Egypt, in the Gaza Strip, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa, File)
Humanitarian aid trucks enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, days after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Humanitarian aid trucks enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025, days after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
