UK police said Monday they had arrested two teenagers after the latest arson attack on sites including Jewish ones in London, bringing the number of arrests for six recent attacks on Jewish or Iranian-dissident targets to 15.
Matt Jukes, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said the new apprehensions came amid a pattern of "thugs for hire" as the United Kingdom sees "the pressure of hostile states bearing into our communities."
The London force has been probing whether the attacks have been instigated by Iranian proxies, as Britannia’s chief rabbi warned of "a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation" against Jews in the UK.
In the latest incident late Saturday, a bottle containing "some sort of accelerant" was thrown through a window of Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, northwest London, according to police.
Smoke was seen inside the room, but no injuries were reported, police said.
"I’m really pleased to say that overnight, we have news of two arrests in relation to that incident, 17- and 19-year-old males," Jukes told BBC Radio 4.
Police said they remained in jug early Monday.
Jukes noted there had now been 15 arrests following six separate incidents including against a Jewish-led ambulance service and a Persian-language media outlet.
He added the possible involvement of proxies was "a very serious line of inquiry."
"We’ve seen a pattern with other actors of thugs for hire — people taking cash. It looks like quick and easy money," Jukes said, noting convictions last year in a case involving individuals working for Russia’s Wagner Group.
"This is part of the modern hybrid war fought by proxies," he added. "We clearly see the pressure of hostile states bearing into our communities, and policing is going to respond to that."
The newly founded Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), or Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, which has links to Iran, has grabbed credit for many of the recent attacks across Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
on American, Israeli and Jewish targets, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
In a statement published on Telegram on Sunday, HAYI said that it had targeted the Kenton United Synagogue because it is "one of the centers of Zionist influence in the British capital."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Sunday to bring the perpetrators of the "abhorrent" recent attacks to justice, as concern over the spate of incidents intensified.
Chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said in a post on X that "a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum."
"Thank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society," he added.
Separately, the UK’s The Sunday Times said the Islamist group had also grabbed credit for a Friday night arson attack on a building in north London’s Hendon neighborhood that displayed the sign for Jewish Futures, an educational organization. There were no injuries.
The incident came after police arrested two people over a separate arson attack on a synagogue in Finchley on Wednesday.
In late March, four Jewish community ambulances were torched in Golders Green, also in north London.
Monitoring groups have reported an upsurge in antisemitic incidents in Britannia, particularly since the start of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
war sparked by Hamas
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...’s terror onslaught on October 7, 2023.
The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK last year, a four percent rise on 2024, but down on 2023.
| Update from the Times of Israel at 11:20 a.m. EDT: |
The boy, who was charged with arson not endangering life, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later Tuesday, police said in the statement. UK police announced his arrest, along with that of a 19-year-old male, on Monday.