It is impossible to separate the reprehensible arson attack from the federal government’s “extreme anti-Israeli position,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

“Including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’, and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country,” he wrote on X.

“The burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of anti-Semitism,” he said.

The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network said any attack on a place of worship is an unacceptable act of hate via social media.

But the network accused Mr Netanyahu of seeking to sow division as a distraction from his government’s actions.

The Adass Israel synagogue at Rippon Lea in Melbourne’s southeast had two of its three buildings gutted after suspected masked intruders allegedly broke into the building and set it alight in the early hours of Friday.

Two congregants preparing for morning prayers evacuated, with one sustaining minor injuries.

Terrorism has not been ruled out after the suspects poured accelerant on the floor inside the synagogue and set it on fire before fleeing, police said.

The advocacy network’s president Nasser Mashni said Australia’s support for international law was not to blame.

“Netanyahu’s attempt to cast Australia as ‘anti-Semitic’ for its opposition to illegal occupation and apartheid is a shameless distraction from his government’s crimes against humanity in Palestine,” he said in a statement.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Mr Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Deif.

Mr Mashni said Mr Netanyahu has no standing to lecture Australia on morality or justice.

Israel President Isaac Herzog said he firmly condemned the horrific arson amid an intolerable wave of attacks on Jewish communities when he spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday night.

“I thanked him for his ongoing efforts to combat anti-Semitism, and expressed my trust that the local law enforcement would do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice,” he said.

Political and religious leaders have widely condemned the attack on the synagogue, built by Holocaust survivors.

Mr Albanese said he had no tolerance for anti-Semitism.

“This deliberate, unlawful attack goes against everything we are as Australians and everything we have worked so hard to build as a nation,” he said in a statement.

Australian Federal Police will provide all requested resources to Victorian authorities, he said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said police patrols would be increased, and pledged $100,000 to rebuilding the synagogue.