Blast damages Amsterdam Jewish school in ‘deliberate attack,’ mayor says

An overnight blast damaged an Amsterdam Jewish school but did not cause any injuries, Mayor Femke Halsema said Saturday, denouncing the “deliberate attack against the Jewish community.”

The explosion damaged a rain pipe and charred an outer wall at the school, which is the only one specifically for Orthodox Jews in the Netherlands, and is largely fenced off by a pointed, metal outer wall due to earlier threats.

A previously unknown group, possibly linked to Iran, claimed responsibility and posted a video appearing to show the attack.

The blast followed similar explosions at synagogues in the Belgian city of Liege on Monday and in the Dutch city of Rotterdam early on Friday. At least seven other Diaspora synagogues have been targeted since the US and Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran on February 28 in a bid to dismantle its clerical regime and destroy its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Haslema, the Amsterdam mayor, condemned the attack in her city, noting in a statement that Amsterdam’s Jewish community has been “increasingly often confronted with antisemitism and this is unacceptable.”

“A school must be a place where children can attend classes in complete safety. Amsterdam must be a place where Jews can live in safety,” she said.

The police and fire departments quickly arrived at the scene of the blast in Buitenveldert district in the south of Amsterdam, the statement said.

“The material damage is limited,” the mayor said.

The police have CCTV footage of a person placing the explosive device, Halsema said.

Jewish communities around the world, including in the Netherlands, have reported record levels of antisemitic attacks since the war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023. In Amsterdam, Israeli soccer fans also fell victim to a coordinated attack in November 2024.

Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten called this week’s attacks in the Netherlands “horrible” and said he understands “the anger and fear” of the Jewish community in the country.

“I will soon engage in dialogue with the Jewish community,” Jetten wrote on X. “They must always feel safe in our country.”

Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Zvi Vapni vowed that despite the latest “vile attack” in the Netherlands, “Jewish life will continue to grow stronger.”

“The same people who attacked the synagogue in Rotterdam yesterday are trying once again to instill fear and hatred. But we will not be intimidated,” said Vapni. “Antisemitism must be stopped, and those who perpetrated this attack must pay the full price for their crimes.”

Israel’s foreign ministry said on Saturday that “an antisemitism epidemic is raging” in the Netherlands.

“The Dutch government needs to do much more to fight antisemitism,” the ministry said, in a social media post.

Social media accounts linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard published a purported video of the attack in Amsterdam, attributed to a group calling itself the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right (IMCR), which claimed to have carried out the attack.

المقاومة الإسلامية حركة اصحاب اليمين تتبنى رسميا استهداف معبد يهودي في العاصمة الهولندية إمستردام pic.twitter.com/fg4dKKfbiR

— #ايران (@iranhashtags) March 14, 2026

The group, which was unknown before this week, has also claimed responsibility for the attacks in Rotterdam and Liege. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish US-based think tank, noted that IMCR uses a logo similar to those of known Iranian proxy groups, but said it was still “unclear if IMCR is a genuine organization linked to Iran.”

Iran, which backs a regional network of anti-Israel terrorist proxies, has also carried out or plotted dozens of attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets abroad.