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Four men charged with an arson attack on London ambulances owned by a Jewish charity appeared in a UK court for the first time on Friday, when the judge set a trial date.
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The 23 March attack in Golders Green, north London, destroyed four vehicles parked near a synagogue and has been followed by a spate of similar incidents, mainly targeting venues in the capital linked to Israel or Jewish people.
London police have arrested 25 people over the attacks and said they are investigating whether those involved were paid proxies.
The young men who appeared in central London’s Old Bailey court have been charged over the attack on the Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola.
The group was established in 1979 and is operated by volunteers. It provides free medical transportation and emergency response to those living in north London.
Two of the men, 20-year-old Hamza Iqbal and 19-year-old Rehan Khan, both from Leyton, east London, sat in the dock in grey tracksuits.
Judex Atshatshi, 18, from Dagenham, east London, and a 17-year-old of dual British-Pakistani nationality from Walthamstow, northeast London, who cannot be named due to his age, appeared via video-link.
They confirmed their names and ages, while Khan described conditions in detention as “hard” to the judge, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb.
She set a date of 27 January 2027 for the trial, which is expected to last four weeks, and ordered the four remain in custody.
The judge also ruled all the defendants can be tried at the Old Bailey rather than the 17-year-old’s trial being held at a youth court, noting several factors including the small age difference.
Multiple gas cylinders on the vehicles exploded, causing windows to break in an adjacent apartment block.
Nearby homes were also evacuated as a precautionary measure and no injuries were reported.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the incident as a “deeply shocking antisemitic arson attack.”
“My thoughts are with the Jewish community who are waking up this morning to this horrific news,” he wrote in a post on X.
The UK has accused Tehran of using criminal proxies to conduct attacks on European soil targeting opposition media outlets and the Jewish community.
Britain’s MI5 domestic intelligence service says more than 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year up to last October.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
