23/03/2026
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23/03/2026
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View at burnt Ambulances in a car park at Golders Green in London, Monday, March 23, 2026 after an apparent arson attack on four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service, Hatzola Northwest, in London.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
LONDON (AP), Mar 23: Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire early Monday in London in what British police are investigating as an antisemitic hate crime. Detectives were working to determine whether a claim of responsibility from a group with alleged links to Iran was authentic.
Though it has not been classified as a terrorist incident, counterterror officers have been put in charge of the investigation. No one was injured in the nighttime attack, which shattered windows in nearby homes and left the vehicles charred shells.
Religious and political leaders condemned what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called a “horrific” antisemitic attack.
“Antisemitism has no place in our society and it’s really important that we all stand together at a moment like this,” said Starmer, who met Jewish community leaders at 10 Downing St. on Monday to discuss the response to the attack.
Officers were called to Golders Green, a north London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, after receiving reports of a fire, the Metropolitan Police force said. Four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a volunteer organization that provides emergency medical response, were damaged, according to the London Fire Brigade.
Oxygen cylinders on the vehicles exploded, breaking windows in an adjacent apartment block. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution.
What appeared to be footage from a security camera showed three figures in black wearing hoods carrying a canister toward one of the ambulances before flames erupted around the vehicle. Police said they are looking for three suspects but no arrests have been made yet.
Police try to authenticate claim of responsibility
A video posted on Telegram, allegedly by an Islamist group called Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, showed a map of the location where the ambulances were kept and footage of them on fire. A group of the same name, which translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, previously claimed responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Israel’s government has called it a recently founded group with suspected links to pro-Iran networks.
Police said they were aware of an online claim of responsibility and were working to establish its authenticity.
“Establishing the accuracy of this claim is a priority for the investigating team,” Security Minister Dan Jarvis said.
Mark Reisner, who lives in the neighborhood, heard loud explosions and arrived at the scene “just as the third ambulance was blowing up,” he told Sky News.
“A very loud explosion, you sort of felt it go through your guts,” he said, adding, “it’s just left us all reeling with confusion and shock.”
The attack spread fear and alarm through Britain’s Jewish community, which feels increasingly vulnerable.
Shomrim, a nonprofit organization which operates a neighborhood watch in the area, condemned the attack on X as “a targeted and deeply concerning incident affecting a vital emergency service serving the local Jewish community.”
