Australian police have said they foiled a potential antisemitic attack on discovering a trailer packed with explosives in northwest Sydney, alarming the Jewish community following a spate of arson and graffiti incidents.

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.

Australian police believe explosives found on Sydney’s outskirts were evidence of a deadly escalation in a campaign of antisemitic arson and graffiti crimes that has been waged in major cities for months.

The police said they were investigating whether “overseas actors” were involved in the vandalizing of synagogues and a day care center.

An antisemitic campaign featuring arson and graffiti has been waged in major cities for months, authorities said.

Australia was once viewed as a multicultural melting pot but a string of attacks against its Jewish community has cast doubt over this perception.

A Jewish school and two other properties in Sydney were sprayed with antisemitic slurs, authorities said on Thursday (January 30), a day after police said they had foiled an attack involving explosives in a suburb of the nation's biggest city.