U.K. probes wave of attacks on Jewish sites for possible Iran links

British investigators were examining a cluster of attacks on Jewish and related sites in northwest London for possible links to Iran, as the case widened from arson attacks into a broader national-security inquiry. Counter Terrorism Policing London said it was looking at three separate incidents because of their similarities: an arson attack on volunteer-led ambulances in Golders Green, an attempted arson attack at a synagogue in Finchley, and an arson attack on the offices of a Persian-language media organization.

The Golders Green case has become the center of the investigation. Police said four ambulances from Hatzola, a volunteer-led Jewish community ambulance service, were set on fire in the March 23 attack. Two British nationals, aged 47 and 45, were arrested on March 25 on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. Later arrests followed, including three more people on April 1 and a 19-year-old man arrested on April 4 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in connection with the same case.

By April 27, Sky News reported 26 arrests tied to attacks on Jewish sites in northwest London since late March. Counter Terrorism Policing said on April 16 that the incidents were unfolding against what it described as “an operational backdrop of global instability and sustained and increasingly aggressive hostile activity on UK soil,” and said officers were seeing an unprecedented level of national-security investigations with suspected links to foreign states. Police stressed that none of the incidents had yet been declared terrorist attacks and that investigators were keeping an open mind about motive.

The diplomatic pressure rose as well. On April 28, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office summoned Iran’s ambassador after saying the Iranian embassy had posted unacceptable and inflammatory comments on social media. Hamish Falconer, the minister for the Middle East, said the communications must stop if they could be interpreted as encouraging violence in the UK or abroad.

The latest violence came on April 29, when police in Golders Green said two Jewish men were stabbed in what they called a terrorist incident. A 45-year-old suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, and the victims were reported to be stable. The attack deepened anxiety in a community already under strain from a surge in antisemitic abuse and violence.

The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2025, its second-highest annual total, up 4 percent from 2024 and far above the level before October 2023. The group said the Manchester synagogue attack in October 2025 was the most severe antisemitic incident of the year and the first antisemitic terror attack in the UK to cause deaths since it began recording incidents in 1984.