'A premeditated, targeted attack against the Jewish community'

Four plead guilty to burning four ambulances owned by London Jewish charity

Arson of Hatzola vehicles parked at synagogue caused a million pounds’ worth of damage, was one of a spate of attacks on Jewish communities early in the Iran war

By AFP and ToI Staff 29 August 2026, 9:15 am

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Rehan Khan, Judex Atshatshi, Saif Ali and Hamza Iqbal, who pleaded guilty on August 28, 2026, to an arson attackthat destroyed four ambulances owned by the Jewish charity Hatzola that were parked outside a synagogue in London on March 23, 2026. (London Met Police)

Four young men admitted in a UK court on Friday that they were behind a March arson attack in London that destroyed four ambulances owned by the Jewish charity Hatzola that were parked outside a synagogue.

British nationals Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and British-Pakistani Saif Ali, 18, all pleaded guilty to criminal damage linked to the March 23 attack in the Golders Green neighborhood, home to a significant Jewish population.

Three of the men set fire to the ambulances, while the fourth waited in a getaway car. The arsonists destroyed four ambulance vehicles, causing damage valued at £1 million ($1.4 million).

Iqbal, Khan and Atshatshi entered their pleas by video link, while Ali, wearing a white shirt, was present in the dock at London’s Old Bailey central criminal court.

The men were remanded in custody and are expected to be sentenced in spring 2027. Defense lawyers denied charges that the four defendants had any “terrorism” connections to groups proscribed in the UK.

A fifth defendant, Subhan Ahmed, 18, pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender and is due to go on trial at the Old Bailey in January.

Burnt ambulances in a parking lot at Golders Green in London, March 23, 2026, after an arson attack on the four vehicles belonging to a Jewish ambulance service. (AP/Alberto Pezzali)

At a previous hearing, prosecution lawyer Emma Harraway told the court there was strong evidence that the attack on the ambulances was “a premeditated and targeted attack against the Jewish community.”

The arson was one of a spate of attacks on Jewish communities during the early weeks of the war that the US and Israel launched against Iran on February 28.

A family walks past police forensic officers working in a street near to the scene of an arson attack targeting Jewish community ambulances, in the Golders Green neighborhood of north London on March 23, 2026. (Henry Nicholls / AFP)

In Golders Green, a terrorist also stabbed two Jewish men in late April, and was later charged with attempting to murder them as well as a fellow member of the Somali community.

An Iran-linked group known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah (HAYI) had previously claimed multiple attacks, including the destruction of the ambulances.

The UK government has announced plans to ban HAYI, also known as the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, as a national security threat.