World

Four plead guilty to attack on UK Jewish ambulances

By AAP Newswire

Aug 29, 2026

Burnt ambulances in a car park at Golders Green — Four ambulances belonging to Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola were torched in London. -AP

Four young men have pleaded guilty to charges over ‌an arson attack on community ambulances ‌in London, the first of a spate of incidents targeting the capital's Jewish community earlier ‌this year.

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Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and Saif Ali, 18, appeared at London's Old Bailey court and admitted a charge of destroying ‌or damaging ‌property ⁠being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The charges relate to the torching of four ambulances belonging to Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzola on March 23 while they were parked near a synagogue in Golder's Green, north London, which prosecutors said cost ⁠about a million pounds ($A1.9 million) in ‌total.

Hatzola is a not-for-profit volunteer emergency service that works alongside the United Kingdom's National Health Service ‌and primarily serves the Orthodox Jewish community.

Pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) claimed responsibility for the ambulance attack, which was followed by several other arson incidents in London.

A synagogue and a former synagogue were targeted, as ‌was Persian-language media organisation Iran International and a memorial wall dedicated to people killed in Iran.

UK police said at the time that they were investigating possible Iranian links to those arson attacks, with HAYI also having claimed responsibility for some of ⁠them.