Australian police seek three suspects in ‘terrorist’ synagogue blaze

Australian police said Monday they are hunting for three suspects over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, designating it a terrorist act.

Mask-wearing attackers set the Adass Israel Synagogue ablaze before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building.

Some congregants were inside the single-storey building at the time but no serious injuries were reported.

The fire sparked international condemnation, including from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing”, Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference.

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 on Monday and concluded that the fire was “likely a terrorist incident”, the police chief said.

“Based on that, I am very confident that we now have had an attack, a terrorist attack on that synagogue,” he said.

Counter-terrorism police have joined the probe.

Under Australian law, a terrorist act is one that causes death, injury or serious property damage to advance a political, religious or ideological cause and is aimed at intimidating the public or a government.

The official designation unlocks help from other federal agencies for the investigation, said Australian National University terrorism researcher Michael Zekulin.

“Basically you get additional resources that you might not otherwise get,” he told AFP.

‘Heinous act’

There is no information to suggest further attacks are likely and Australia’s terror threat assessment will remain at its current level of “probable”, said Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has denounced the synagogue attack as an “outrage”, announced the creation of a federal police taskforce targeting anti-Semitism.

“Anti-Semitism is a major threat and anti-Semitism has been on the rise,” Albanese told a news conference, citing the synagogue blaze and recent vandalism.

The taskforce will be made up of federal police to be deployed across the country as needed, officials said.

They will focus on threats, violence and hatred towards the Jewish community and parliamentarians.

The war in Gaza has sparked protests from supporters of Israel and Palestinians in cities around Australia, as in much of the world.

Netanyahu attacked the Australian government’s stance in the run-up to the fire.

“This heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government,” he said after the attack.

“Anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism.”

Australia voted last week for a United Nations General Assembly resolution that demanded the end of Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.

New Zealand, Britain, and Canada were among 157 countries that voted for the resolution, with eight against.

Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus rejected Netanyahu’s accusation.

“He’s absolutely wrong. I respectfully disagree with Mr Netanyahu,” Dreyfus told national broadcaster ABC on Monday.

“Australia remains a close friend of Israel, as we have been since the Labor government recognised the State of Israel when it was created by the United Nations. Now that remains the position.”