Man convicted of attempting terror attack at Israeli embassy in London
Abdullah Albadri of Kuwait tried to breach the embassy’s perimeter with two knives in April 2025 after his asylum claim was rejected by the UK
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LONDON — A man who last year tried to enter Israel’s London embassy armed with two knives and carrying a “martyrdom note” was on Friday convicted in a London court of preparing an act of terrorism.
Abdullah Albadri, 34, a failed asylum seeker from Kuwait, attempted to breach the embassy’s perimeter in April 2025 because he wanted to send a message about “the killing of children,” prosecutors said at his trial this month.
Albadri denied charges of preparing an act of terrorism and possession of two bladed articles, telling police he had the knives because he was homeless, but a jury found him guilty on Friday.
The verdicts came two days after two Jewish men were stabbed in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Golders Green in north London, in what police said was a suspected terrorist incident, adding to heightened fears within Britain’s Jewish community.
Last month, a pro-Iranian group claimed online that it targeted the embassy with drones carrying “dangerous substances.” Police later said they found no hazardous substances.
Albadri was arrested by two armed officers as he tried to scale the fence outside the embassy in west London last April. Prosecutors said he later told police he wanted to send a message about stopping the war, a reference to the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.
“The prosecution says that Mr Albadri’s intention was to use or threaten serious violence against the Israeli government, to exact revenge for its alleged murder of children,” Catherine Pattison told jurors at the Old Bailey.
A man has been found guilty of preparing terrorist acts. Armed officers arrested him as he attempted to breach security at the Israeli Embassy in London, carrying two knives. pic.twitter.com/StBX2tPpsb
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) May 1, 2026
Pattison said Albadri had arrived in Britain via a small boat on two occasions and most recently entered the country in April last year, when he applied for asylum, claiming he faced risks in Kuwait as a human rights activist.
However, exchanges on his phone showed his asylum claim was rejected later that month, after which his intention began to shift to “far more sinister matters,” and he started searching for the location of the Israeli embassy, Pattison said.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the Israeli embassy has faced a number of security alerts, but police “continuously review and strengthen protective security plans to ensure the site and the wider community is kept as safe as possible.”
Britain is home to some 280,000 Jews. The northwest London suburb of Golders Green is one of its epicenters, home to kosher restaurants, multiple Jewish schools and several dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and Middle Eastern communities.
Britain’s chief rabbi has said that UK Jews are facing a campaign of violence and intimidation.
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the UK has soared since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to CST. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up from 1,662 in 2022.
In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and stabbed one person to death. Another person died during the attack after being inadvertently shot by police.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.