State and federal authorities have launched major investigations into a spate of high-profile incidents, many of which have targeted Jewish sites such as synagogues.
Most of the attacks have taken place in Sydney, including the latest major incident in which a childcare centre near a synagogue in the city's east was set alight and sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti.
A Maroubra childcare centre was targeted in a recent anti-Semitic attack. (Steve Markham/AAP PHOTOS)
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley admitted that tensions stoked by the crime wave could be heightened on Sunday when the country marked Australia Day, which has been the focus of large-scale protests in recent years.
"Of course it could," she told ABC radio on Friday.
"But let me tell you this, the NSW Police will be out in force in this city, in Sydney."
State police carried out 422 tasks overnight under Operation Shelter, set up days after the first anniversary of Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel amid major pro-Palestinian protests.
Investigators were also following every line of inquiry to find those responsible for the anti-Semitic attacks, Ms Catley said.
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has warned officers would be out in force on Australia Day. (Dan Himbrechts/AAP PHOTOS)
NSW authorities have made 10 arrests over incidents in the state, but charges are yet to be laid over the childcare centre attack or an arson and graffiti strike on the former home of a prominent Jewish community leader.
Federal police have identified that foreign actors recruiting local "criminals for hire" could be behind some of the incidents.
State and federal leaders also agreed on Tuesday to set up a national database of anti-Semitic incidents to better track the crimes, which have also included the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue.
Muslim community leaders have identified rising cases of Islamophobia following Hamas's attack and Israel's subsequent war in Gaza, complaining that the incidents often go under-reported.
A week earlier, offensive slogans targeting the Islamic community were graffitied on a wall in a southwest Sydney suburb with a large Muslim population.
Ms Catley said police did not tolerate that kind of behaviour when it was targeted at any race or religion.
Officers in the state's central-west are also investigating the spray-painting of swastikas on a campaign billboard for Sam Farraway, the National Party's candidate for the federal seat of Calare.
"Far-right extremism and neo-Nazism has no place in our country," he posted on Facebook on Tuesday, along with a photo of the defaced billboard.
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