Jewish students in Sydney returned to school on Friday with a heightened security presence, days after police said they foiled a planned antisemitic attack in the city using a trailer filled with explosives.

Australian authorities say they’ve foiled a potential “mass casualty” attack with the discovery of a trailer packed with explosives in northwest Sydney, and “an indication” it was to be used against targets in the Jewish community following a spate of antisemitic incidents.

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.

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 say they suspect explosives stashed 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 cit

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.