Four men plead guilty to arson attack on Jewish ambulances in London

LONDON – Four young British men pleaded guilty on Aug 28 to charges over an arson attack on community ambulances in London, the first of a spate of incidents targeting the capital’s Jewish community earlier in 2026.Hamza Iqbal, 20; Rehan Khan, 19; Judex Atshatshi, 18; and Saif Ali, 18, appeared at London’s Old Bailey court and admitted a charge of destroying or damaging property being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.The charges relate to the torching of four ambulances belonging to Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola on March 23 while they were parked near a synagogue, which prosecutors said caused around £1 million (S$1.73 million) in total damages.Hatzola is a not-for-profit volunteer emergency service that works alongside Britain’s National Health Service and primarily serves the Orthodox Jewish community.Pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) claimed responsibility for the ambulance attack, which was followed by several other arson incidents in the city.Two Jewish worshippers were stabbed on a street in the Golders Green area of north London in April in the most notable of the incidents, an attack which police are treating as a terrorism attack.Also, a synagogue and a former synagogue were targeted, as was Persian-language media organisation Iran International and a memorial wall dedicated to people killed in Iran.British police said at the time that they were investigating possible Iranian links to those arson attacks, with HAYI also having claimed responsibility for some of them.A charity which provides security for Jewish communities said on Aug 5 that anti-Semitism in Britain remains close to record levels, with almost 2,000 incidents recorded in the first six months of 2026.This was a rise of 21 per cent compared with the same period in 2025, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), which advises Britain’s estimated 280,000 Jews on security matters.That was the second-highest figure ever recorded for the first half of a year, the charity added.The CST said incidents had spiked following the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran in February, with the British authorities since accusing Tehran of using proxies to carry out attacks in Britain and across Europe. Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement. REUTERS