Slovakia's Jewish community labeled it "an unprecedented barbaric act."

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Police are investigating the incident at the cemetery, which dates to the second half of the 18th century. It was renovated in 2010.

The World Jewish Congress decried the desecration.

"The Jews of Slovakia have in recent years been fortunately spared of overtly aggressive expressions of anti-Semitism, but it has become sadly clear that in the climate of xenophobia and hatred spiraling across Europe, every minority community is indeed a potential target for malicious attack," said the organization in a statement.

"We are incredibly grateful to the Christian NGO Pamätaj-Remember for taking it upon itself to invest in the maintenance and upkeep of the Jewish cemetery in the absence of an active Jewish community in the town of Námestovo, and we sincerely hope that this example of interfaith support will continue to triumph over any and all manifestations of hatred.

"This was an inexcusable and direct attack against the Jewish community, which must be condemned at the highest levels," the statement: continued. "All authorities in Slovakia and across Europe must make it clear that such expressions of disrespect and hatred will not be tolerated.

"We thank the local police authorities for treating this attack with the severity that it deserves and hope that the perpetrators will be located and brought to justice at once."

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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On Friday morning, the cemetery manager discovered that a number of headstones for fallen British soldiers and Templars had been defaced with red painted swastikas. He reported the incident to the police.

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The police said officially that the motive for the vandalism was still unclear and that no arrests had been made as of Saturday evening. However, a senior police official told Israel Hayom that "the main suspicion is that this was a hate crime."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a statement about the vandalized graves, saying, "We take the desecration of the graves of World War I heroes in Haifa very seriously. We owe them a historic debt."

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Up above, the Har Hamenuchot Cemetery dominates the hillside overlooking the main highway leading into Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. But in October, the cemetery's management plans to open the first section of a sprawling catacomb complex which, when completed, will provide 23,000 gravesites for an increasingly crowded country.

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"People will die probably forever," said Arik Glazer, chief executive of Rolzur Tunneling, the company building the tunnel tombs, "so you have to get space for that."

Land is in short supply in Israel, and Jewish and Muslim burial customs require interring the dead in the ground and prohibit cremation. The hilltop cemetery is almost at capacity, with nearly a quarter-million graves. The first underground section opening in October will have capacity for 8,000. The remaining sections are slated to open in the coming years.

Like other increasingly crowded metropolises, Tel Aviv has embraced vertical cemetery structures to accommodate growing demand, but now Israel is looking for solutions below ground.

Even in the blazing summer heat, the labyrinthine vaults maintain their steady year-round temperature of 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit).

The limestone walls are lined four-high with tombs that resemble small Japanese capsule hotels. Giant flame-hued polyhedron light fixtures designed by German artist Yvelle Gabriel dangle at intersections between the avenues and streets deep in the mountain.

The entire project cost an estimated $50 million and took just over three years to complete. The tunnels take up just 5% of the total subterranean area of the mountain available for future tombs, Glazer said.

Part of the inspiration behind this project was the ancient Jewish custom of cave burials found at sites around the Holy Land, from the UNESCO heritage site of Beit Shearim near Haifa to rocky hillsides around Jerusalem.

"The basic blueprints for this project were the cemetery at Beit Shearim," said Adi Alphandary, head of Rolzur's business development. Those catacombs, active between the second and fourth centuries, were recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site in 2015.

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Amit Reem said that families would inter the deceased's remains in the catacombs, then seal the door with a rock for eight months.

"When they opened the door of the cave, inside the cave was only the skeleton with no flesh," Reem said. The bones were then collected and often placed in stone boxes, known as ossuaries, inside the cave chamber.

While the modern-day burial chambers will simply be sealed with a grave marker, Hananya Shahor, executive director of the Jewish burial association in Jerusalem, said that Orthodox rabbis they consulted said that the sprawling site is "100% acceptable according to Jewish tradition."

"We are almost sure that people will like this way more than the old systems of burial," he said.

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