British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has denounced the arson of ambulances owned by a Jewish volunteer emergency service as a “horrifying” instance of antisemitism.
“An attack on our Jewish community is an attack on us all,” he said. “We will fight the poison that is antisemitism.”
The four ambulances owned by Hatzola were parked next to a synagogue in Golders Green, a heavily Jewish neighborhood of London, when they were set ablaze early Monday morning. Images from the scene showed that the ambulances were fully destroyed.
Hatzola is a volunteer emergency service that serves both Jewish and non-Jewish callers, like the other similar services in other major Jewish communities around the world.
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that they believed, based on security footage, that they were looking for three suspects but had not yet made any arrests. The incident comes amid a recent flurry of explosions at European Jewish sites, including bombings of synagogues in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The same new group that claimed responsibility for those attacks said in an online video that it had set the fire in London, which it said was meant to target the adjacent synagogue, Machzike Hadath. Luke Williams, deputy chief superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, said on the scene that investigators would work to verify the video’s authenticity. He said the Counter-Terrorism Unit was helming the investigation.
The scene also drew Health Secretary Wes Streeting and British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
Streeting said the British government would replace the ambulances at no cost to Hatzola. Temporary replacements would arrive by Tuesday morning, he said.
“The important message to the local Jewish community, indeed, to Londoners more widely, if you need help from the ambulance service … we will be there for you,” Streeting said. “The Jewish community should not be left footing the bill for this despicable attack.”
Hatzola was founded in London in 1979 and is staffed by volunteers, who handle thousands of calls annually, treating patients on the scene and transporting them to local hospitals.
Mirvis called the attack “a particularly sickening assault … on the values we share as a society.” He said Hatzola’s “sole purpose” was the protection of human life, while its attackers had another agenda.
“The targeting of Hatzola by people so committed to terror, hatred and the desecration of life is a most painful illustration of the ongoing battle between those who sanctify life and those who seek to destroy it,” he said in a statement. “At a time when Jewish communities around the world are facing a growing pattern of these violent attacks, we will meet this moment with shared resolve and stand together against hatred and intimidation.”
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