Sara* was waiting for the 6.44 am train when she was told she had bombed Israel.
The 24-year-old was confronted by a stranger spitting insults on her commute to work.
She told SBS News the last few weeks felt "more tense".
It's a tension particularly felt by Australians of Muslim and Jewish faiths since , killing more than 1,400 people. At least 7,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardments on Gaza since, according to authorities in the enclave.
Escalating violence in the Middle East has triggered an increase in the number of racial vilification incidents in Australia.
Rabbi Ralph Genende said one of the leaders in his community had been targeted in their home, with a car driving past every night since 7 October, from which anti-Jewish obscenities are shouted.
The Melbourne rabbi admits he feels "insecure" in the city for the first time in 30 years, taking off his kippah — the brimless cap traditionally worn by Jewish men — at the request of his family when they travelled into the city last week.
"I guess I also do feel insecure, which I haven't felt in Melbourne before … because I think something so fundamental has been shaken, which we are still trying to process," he said.
Rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia
The Islamophobia Register of Australia said there had been a ten-fold increase in hate incidents since the violence in the Middle East broke out on October 7.
Executive director Sharara Attai told SBS News the Register had received reports from anxious Muslim women, who felt particularly at risk because their hijabs were such a visible sign of their faith.
"I think the situation overseas at the moment, it's having a devastating impact on the Muslim community here in Australia. We've seen a staggering rise in Islamophobia since the latest escalations began," she said.
The kinds of incidents range from threats to mosques, Islamic schools, verbal assaults, graffiti, vandalism, harassment, threatening emails and online harassment.
She said they'd received 51 reports in two weeks, but with the understanding real numbers "were higher" as .
Attai said many Muslim Australians felt "alienated" and "abandoned" by Australia's government largely .
"It's obviously a tense time for the community at large, but it's having a very significant impact on the Australian Muslim community, and that hasn't been acknowledged," she said.
"We don't want to see what's happening in the Middle East ... play out on our streets.
"We don't want to see people here who have nothing to do with what's happening overseas, whether they be Muslim or Jewish to be harassed."
The South Australian Islamic Society says members of the community are fearing for their safety after two Adelaide mosques were the target of arson attacks.
A gas cylinder was set on fire outside Al-Khalil Mosque on Monday and a grass fire was lit outside the Marion Mosque four days earlier, a spokeswoman for the society said.
South Australian senator and opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham denounced the abuse and said Australians of "any faith" should feel safe.
"Islamophobia is to be condemned, just as is antisemitism and all hateful acts motivated by faith, race or other attributes," he posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Julie Nathan, Research Director at the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the organisation has seen an "alarming spike" in hate crimes.
"Over the years there has been a steady increase in , more than doubling in five years from 230 incidents in 2017 to 478 incidents in 2022," she told SBS News.
"In the week before 7 October, there was one antisemitic incident reported, and in the week after 7 October, there were 37 anti-Jewish incidents.
"Some of these incidents were of , while many other incidents were verbal abuse of Jews on the streets and graffiti."
Rabbi Genende urged Australians to reach out to their Jewish neighbours to show their support.
"This has caused a profound sense of shaking people's belief in a safe world. It's our 9/11 moment," he said.
Violence towards Australians condemned
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has also , as tensions rise ahead of a likely ground invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces.
"We have seen some disturbing rhetoric in recent weeks," Senator Wong told a budget estimates hearing on Monday.
"We are seeing a human tragedy, and I would observe that how all of us as political leaders approach these issues does have an impact on the unity of our country.
"Australians are deeply distressed, and rightly so, and this distress is felt most acutely in our Jewish community and our Palestinian community."
Australians who have experienced or witnessed any incidents of antisemitism or Islamophobia, in person or online, are urged to report it to the police.
*Sara's name has been changed on request
- with additional reporting by AAP.
