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London Jewish Community Ambulances Set Ablaze in Antisemitic Attack
A member of Shomrim, a community security patrol group operating in Jewish neighborhoods, stands on a road near emergency vehicles at the scene, after four ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community organization, were set on fire in an incident that the police say is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, in northwest London, Britain, March 23, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
Four Jewish community ambulances were set ablaze in north London on Monday in what British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called “a deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack.”
The London Fire Brigade said multiple cylinders on the vehicles exploded, shattering nearby windows. No injuries were reported and no arrests have been made.
The SITE Intelligence website said an Iran-aligned multinational terrorist collective called Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand had claimed responsibility for the attack near a synagogue in Golders Green.
It said the group had been behind similar fires in Liege, Belgium, and Rotterdam and Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
British lawmakers and the domestic spy agency MI5 have warned of threats posed by Iran, including the surveillance or targeting of Jewish sites. Tehran has denied such accusations.
ISRAELI EMBASSY CONDEMNS CLIMATE OF INTIMIDATION
The Israeli embassy in London, which has long criticized Britain for failing to do more to tackle antisemitism, said the firebombings followed years of “hate-filled marches” in support of the Palestinians, along with incitement and intimidation.
“Enough is enough,” it said on X, calling for “decisive action to put an end to this climate of intimidation before it spirals further. Silence and inaction are no longer an option.”
Security footage showed three men in hooded jackets approaching the ambulances before they were engulfed in flames.
Police said the fires were being treated as an antisemitic hate crime and not as a terrorist incident, but the investigation would be led by counter-terrorism officers who had specialist expertise. They also said they could not confirm the authenticity of the online claim by the Iran-aligned group.
Dutch prosecutors have said claims made by the group were part of the investigation into attacks on a Jewish school in Amsterdam and a synagogue in Rotterdam, but declined to say anything further.
SEVERAL MEN CHALLENGE CAMERA CREW
Amid tense scenes in London on Monday, several men briefly challenged an Al Jazeera camera crew who were present. Others urged the visiting health minister, Wes Streeting, to view a nearby wall covered in pictures of people killed in Iran.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan condemned the attack and said police patrols would be increased in the area.
“My thoughts are with the Jewish community who are waking up this morning to this horrific news,” Starmer said on X. “Antisemitism has no place in our society.”
The ambulances belonged to Hatzola, a not-for-profit volunteer organization that works alongside Britain’s health service and was founded in the 1960s in Brooklyn, New York, to provide services to its Yiddish speaking, Hasidic community.
Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg said the Hatzola service would continue to operate for the “nation that we love.” Streeting said the government would replace the ambulances.
ATTACKS ON JEWISH TARGETS HAVE RISEN
Attacks against Jewish people and targets have risen worldwide since the October 2023 Hamas assault on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, including in Britain. Starmer had warned that the US-Israeli war on Iran would stoke tensions further.
The most severe incident was a 2025 attack in Manchester that killed two Jewish worshippers during Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The government says it is working with Muslim and Jewish organizations to protect sensitive sites.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.