Overview
- Victoria’s Joint Counter-Terrorism Security Investigation Unit arrested a 34-year-old man from Sydney and charged him with reckless conduct endangering life, reckless conduct endangering serious injury, criminal damage by fire and possession of a controlled weapon.
- Police allege the suspect doused the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation’s double front doors with flammable liquid around 8 p.m. on July 4 during Shabbat dinner, forcing about 20 worshippers to evacuate through a rear exit without injury.
- Authorities continue to treat the attack as a serious criminal incident while probing ideological motives and have not formally declared it a terrorist act.
- On the same night, around 20 masked protesters stormed the Israeli restaurant Miznon in Melbourne’s CBD chanting “Death to the IDF,” and a separate early-morning firebombing in Greensborough targeted three vehicles.
- Political and community leaders from Premier Jacinta Allan to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry have called for expedited hate-crime legislation and stronger protections for Jewish institutions.