Highlights:
- UK announces extra £25m for security at Jewish schools, synagogues and community centres
- Two Jewish men stabbed in north London in what police call a terrorist incident
- Group believed to be linked to Iran claims responsibility for the attack
- Govet plans fast-tracked legislation targeting groups linked to hostile states
THE UK government said it will provide an extra £25 million ($33 million) to fund security for Jewish communities, a day after two Jewish men were stabbed in London.
“People have a sense of deep insecurity... and that is why the government is bringing forward investment, an additional £25 million to invest in the security of our Jewish community,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood told Sky News.
“That will pay for more protective security for our Jewish synagogues, schools, places of worship, community centres,” she added.
The stabbings took place on Wednesday in north London, where two Jewish men were attacked in the street in broad daylight. Police have declared the case a “terrorist incident”. The victims, aged 76 and 34, were taken to hospital and were in a stable condition.
A 45-year-old man, a British national born in Somalia who came to the UK as a child, remains in custody.
The incident follows a series of arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in the area, as well as an attack in Manchester last year in which two people died at a synagogue.
A little-known group believed to be linked to Iran claimed responsibility for the stabbing. The SITE Intelligence Group reported that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), meaning The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand, said one of its “lone wolves” carried out the attack.
“Zionists were targeted by our lone wolves in the Golders Green area of London,” HAYI said in a claim posted online, according to SITE.
The group has also claimed responsibility for a number of attacks on Jewish-linked targets across Europe in the past two months, including several in London before Wednesday’s incident.
Mahmood said the government would legislate to address “a gap in the law when it comes to organisations that may be linked to hostile states” and their proxies.
The government would be “fast tracking that legislation in the coming weeks”, she said.
Monitoring groups have reported a rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in Britain, particularly since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
