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Child Care Center Torched in Latest Antisemitic Attack in Australia
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks during a press conference at the Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, June 17, 2024. Photo: Lukas Coch/Pool via REUTERS
A child care center in Sydney was set alight early morning on Tuesday and antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on the wall, authorities said, the latest in a spate of attacks in Australia targeting the Jewish community.
The childcare center, located near a Jewish school and synagogue in the city’s east, suffered extensive damage but there were no reports of injuries in the attack which occurred around 1 am (1400 GMT, Monday), police said.
It was the second antisemitic attack on property in four days in Sydney, and comes amid a spate of similar crimes targeting the Jewish community in Australia‘s most-populous city.
New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns said the perpetrators would be caught and police had put more resources into investigating hate crimes, as public frustration grows over the lack of arrests following previous antisemitic attacks.
“The kind of people who would … attack a fellow Australian whom they don’t know because of their race or religion, it is completely disgusting and these bastards will be rounded up by the police,” Minns said during a media briefing.
Australia has seen a steep rise in antisemitic incidents since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas started the Gaza war with its invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. At least half a dozen incidents were reported in the last two months in Sydney alone.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the latest attack as “a vicious crime.”
Albanese is facing a national election due by May and antisemitism is shaping as a key issue, with the opposition criticizing him as “weak” for not doing enough to prevent hate crimes against Jews.
In response to the spate of attacks, the Australian federal police has launched a task force to investigate threats and violence against the Jewish community.
A 44-year-old man was charged last week, the first by the task force, for allegedly making death threats against members of a Jewish organization.
The post Child Care Center Torched in Latest Antisemitic Attack in Australia first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
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Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.