Israeli man arrested for threats against US Jewish centres

Israeli police have arrested a Jewish citizen following scores of bomb threats directed at Jewish community centres in the US and elsewhere.

Police said the suspect was aged 19, he was Jewish, and held both Israeli and US citizenship.

They believe he was behind over 100 bomb threats in the US, Australia and New Zealand. A photo of the suspect in an Israeli court showed a young man covering his face.

"We believe he is responsible for the wave of calls, bomb threats, made to Jewish community centers in the United States," the police spokesman said, according to Reuters.

The Anti-Defamation League said US Jewish community centres and day schools received 150 bomb threats this year.

Jordan Shenker, head of the Kaplen Jewish Community Center which was affected by the threats, said he is confident that the threats will be over and that he can breathe again.

Israeli Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said they were still unclear why the threats were made but they were confident they had the right man.

"The guy who was behind the JCC threats," he said.

Rosenfeld says the man, from the south of Israel, used advanced technologies to mask the origin of his calls.

He was said to have a "very serious" medical condition that may have affected his behaviour.

Agencies contributed to this story.