June 10 (UPI) — The U.S. consulate in North Sydney was vandalized overnight, according to police who are investigating.

The New South Wales Police Force told UPI that officers were called at about 3 a.m. Monday to the building on Miller Street after an unidentified person damaged nine windows with a hammer.

Police said graffiti was also painted on the door.

Images of the damaged building circulating online show windowpanes of the consulate pierced and splintered but intact and the Great Seal of the United States on the front doors spray-painted over with red inverted triangles, a symbol used by pro-Palestinian protesters.

CCTV footage obtained by police shows a person wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt carrying what is believed to be a small sledgehammer, NSW Police told UPI.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has condemned the incident while calling on the public for “respectful political debate and discourse.”

“It’s not the Australian way,” he said during a press conference in Canberra Monday. “We should be able to have views — including on issues which are difficult.”

“Measures, such as painting the U.S. consulate, do nothing to advance the cause of those who have committed what is, of course, a crime to damage property,” he added.

Premier Chris Minns of New South Wales called the attack “reprehensible.”

“Even if there’s disagreement about events taking place overseas, no one wants to see violence or malicious damage in NSW,” he said.

“I think it’s reprehensible. It’s an indication of a kind of coarsening of the public debate that no one needs in Australia,” he continued. “This kind of behavior will be investigated and punished by NSW police.”

The incident is the second time in months that the facility was vandalized. “Free Gaza” was spray painted on the consulate in April. The U.S. consulate in Melbourne was also similarly vandalized late last month.

The vandalism comes amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Though the relationship between the United States and Israel has been strained over the war, Washington has come under mounting criticism over its support of the Middle Eastern country.