Australia's domestic intelligence chief told a public inquiry on Monday that a surge in anti-Semitism following the October 2023 outbreak of the Gaza war was "left unchecked," normalising hostility and contributing to violence against Jewish Australians. Mike Burgess, director-general of ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation), testified at a Royal Commission — a formal independent inquiry — examining events leading up to a mass shooting last December at Bondi Beach in Sydney, which killed 15 people attending a Jewish Hanukkah celebration. Burgess said the deteriorating security environment, which included arson attacks on synagogues, schools, and homes, prompted authorities to raise the national terrorism threat level to "probable" in August 2024, and that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was linked to at least two anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne, resulting in the expulsion of Iran's ambassador.