A Jewish woman living in Melbourne is believed to have received a death threat from a man claiming to be a member of Hizbollah on the social networking website Facebook.

Australian counter-terror experts launched an investigation last week following the threat by a man called Ibrahim Dirani, according to a report in The Australian newspaper on Saturday.

According to police documents, the member of a Lebanon-based Facebook group allegedly wrote after the Israeli woman rejected his offer of a an online friendship: “I am Hizbollah and I am going to kill you and all of your family — promise you.”

The man is now believed to have been banned by Facebook.