Four ambulances belonging to Hatzola Northwest, a Jewish volunteer emergency service, were set on fire outside the Machzikei Hadath synagogue in Golders Green, London, at approximately 1:36 a.m. on March 23. The Metropolitan Police are investigating it as an antisemitic hate crime.
Security camera footage shows three hooded individuals pouring accelerant onto the vehicles before igniting them and fleeing. Gas cylinders aboard the ambulances exploded, breaking windows in nearby buildings. The London Fire Brigade received its first emergency call at approximately 1:40 a.m. and dispatched six engines and around 40 firefighters. No arrests have been made.
Statement by Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams following an antisemitic arson attack in Golders Green overnight. pic.twitter.com/S66joyzzPB
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) March 23, 2026
Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said police were aware of “an online claim from a group taking responsibility for this attack” but could not confirm it.
Counter Terrorism Policing London Commander Helen Flanagan later confirmed the claim came from Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), translating to the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Righteous.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said Monday evening it was “too early” to attribute the attack to Iran.
HAYI’s Telegram channel was created just days before the London attack. The group has published its propaganda in English, Arabic, and Hebrew, but not in Persian, Iran’s primary language, and has used orchestral music in its videos rather than the Islamic nasheeds, devotional chants widely used in jihadist content.
The group’s administrator wrote to CBS News in American English.
“The group looks less like a grassroots European cell and more like an astroturfed terror brand plugged into an existing Iran-aligned network,” Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, told CBS News.
Sharon Adarlo, a conflict analyst at Militant Wire, said she expected many of the perpetrators to be “disaffected teenagers” solicited via Telegram. Dutch police arrested five teenagers in connection with a March 13 synagogue explosion in Rotterdam that HAYI said it carried out.
The Antwerp prosecutor’s office said that two minors were detained following a March 24 car burning in a Jewish neighborhood that the group also said it conducted.
The HAYI Telegram administrator told CBS News the group would “keep threatening U.S. and Israeli interests worldwide,” then deleted the account.
The antisemitic arson attack in Golders Green is horrifying.
I’ve been in touch with Jewish community leaders this morning and will continue to do so throughout the day.
An attack on our Jewish community is an attack on us all. We will fight the poison that is antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/el2AqQ7F6a
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) March 23, 2026
Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the attack “horrific” and said he would fight “the poison that is antisemitism.” Health Secretary Wes Streeting confirmed the government will cover the cost of four replacement ambulances, stating “the Jewish community should not bear the cost of this hatred.”
