Israel fears that Iran is behind an antisemitic attack on four ambulances outside a London synagogue, Britain's The Telegraph revealed Monday.
Sources at the Israeli Embassy told The Telegraph that the firebombing of four ambulances belonging to a Jewish emergency service bore hallmarks of an Iranian-backed attack. According to the report, the Metropolitan Police is treating the arson as a hate crime, with officers searching for three suspects seen on security cameras approaching the vehicles on Highfield Road at around 1:45 a.m. Monday.
The firebombing has raised fears that Iran is running a coordinated campaign of terrorist attacks across Europe, following a series of similar incidents in recent weeks.
Video: Ambulances set on fire outside a synagogue in London. Credit: X
Against the backdrop of the war against Iran, a wave of antisemitic attacks shook Jewish communities across Europe and the United States this week. In the Netherlands and Belgium, synagogues and a Jewish school were bombed and set ablaze in three different cities over six days, with a terror group believed to be connected to the Iranian axis claiming responsibility. In Michigan, a 41-year-old Lebanese man whose two brothers were Hezbollah operatives killed in an Israeli strike rammed a truck into the largest Reform synagogue in the US.
In the early hours of Friday to Saturday, an explosive device went off near the outer wall of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Amsterdam's Buitenveldert neighborhood. As with the incidents in Liège and Rotterdam, a video of the explosion was posted on social media, bearing a logo similar to those used in footage of the earlier attacks. The CIDI (the Dutch Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, a Jewish watchdog group) identified the symbol as belonging to the Islamist group "Ashaab al-Yamin," an Islamist extremist organization linked to pro-Iranian militias, which also claimed responsibility for the synagogue bombing in Liège, Belgium, on Monday and the arson of a synagogue in Rotterdam on Thursday night.
The first explosion in the series occurred on Monday morning at the synagogue in Liège, Belgium, which was built in 1899 and also serves as a museum of the city's Jewish history. A video circulated by the group shows a masked figure walking away from the synagogue as fire burns at the entrance, followed seconds later by a powerful explosion. The message accompanying the video called on followers to "raise the banner of jihad."
On Thursday night, a synagogue in Rotterdam was set on fire at 3:40 a.m., and again, a video with the same logo was published. Police tracked a suspect vehicle spotted on cameras near another synagogue in the city and arrested four suspects aged 17 to 19.
The group, which was unknown until the Liège attack, does not operate its own Telegram channels or social media accounts. Videos of its attacks have been distributed through channels associated with pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq, and its logo bears unmistakable hallmarks of Iranian proxy organizations.
Sharon Hudson-Dean, a former US deputy assistant secretary of state, wrote in a piece published by the CEPA (the Center for European Policy Analysis) that "the war with Iran has expanded beyond the Middle East" and that "Tehran has activated its terror networks" across Europe. "The question was not if, but when Iran's vast proxy network – whose online chatter had been setting off alarm bells since February – would move to action," she wrote.
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten condemned the explosion as "horrific" and wrote, "There is no place for antisemitism in the Netherlands. I understand the anger and fear, and I will meet with the Jewish community soon. It must always feel safe in our country." Justice Minister David van Weel wrote, "Two consecutive nights of cowardly attacks with explosives near a Jewish building. First in Rotterdam, now in Amsterdam. Thanks to measures and vigilance, greater damage was prevented."
Israel's Foreign Ministry said that "an epidemic of antisemitism is raging in the Netherlands" and asked, "Where will the next attack be? The Dutch government must do much more to combat antisemitism."
Meanwhile, in the US, it was revealed that the two brothers of the attacker who carried out the assault on Temple Israel synagogue in the Detroit suburbs – Ayman Muhammad Ghazali, 41 – were Hezbollah operatives killed roughly a week before the attack. According to an NBC report, his brothers Ibrahim and Qasem were members of the organization's rocket unit and were killed in an Israeli strike on March 5 in the town of Masharaa in the Bekaa Valley, along with a niece and nephew aged 4 and 7.
Ghazali himself had been on a watchlist due to his ties to known Hezbollah operatives, and according to the New York Post, he was detained for questioning in 2019 when returning from a trip abroad after a Hezbollah operative's contact details were found on his phone. The FBI announced it is investigating the attack as "an act of targeted violence against the Jewish community."
Ghazali rammed a truck into the synagogue compound, where approximately 140 children and staff members were present at the time. He was found shot in the head after an exchange of fire with synagogue security guards. All children and staff members were safely evacuated.
