London police say the stabbing of 2 Jewish men is an act of terror. The
suspect was arrested
[April 30, 2026]
By JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP) — Two Jewish men were stabbed and injured on a London street
on Wednesday in what police called an act of terror. Police arrested a
45-year-old man on suspicion of attempted murder in the city's latest
antisemitic attack.
The Metropolitan Police said the attack in the Golders Green area left
two men, ages 34 and 76, hospitalized with knife wounds.
Counterterrorism police are investigating whether the stabbings are
linked to recent arson attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites in
the British capital. Detectives are investigating a potential Iranian
link to those attacks, but police said that it's too soon to say whether
Wednesday's stabbing is connected.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer held a meeting of the government's emergency
committee and vowed to “deal with the roots of antisemitism and
extremism.” Buckingham Palace said that King Charles III was “deeply
concerned.”
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said that it was “another
horrendous act of violence directed against our Jewish communities.”
But some British Jews expressed anger at authorities' failure to keep
them safe. Rowley faced shouts of “shame on you” and “resign” from
bystanders when he made a statement to media at the scene of the
stabbings.
Attacker immobilized by police
The security organization Shomrim said that a suspect “was seen running
along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab
Jewish members of the public." It said that the suspect was detained by
Shomrim members and arrested by police, who used a stun gun on him.
Surveillance camera footage showed a man beside a bus stop donning a
kippah, or traditional skullcap, before a passerby with a knife lunges
at him.
Rowley said the suspect, whose name hasn't been released, had “a history
of serious violence and mental health issues.”
Arson attacks in recent weeks targeted Jewish sites in London, including
a charity's ambulances in Golders Green and a synagogue a few miles
away.
“Today is somewhat worse because it’s a physical attack against two
human beings,” resident Anthony Silber said. “It’s shocking to hear,
shocking to listen to, shocking to watch for those that saw, but it’s
not a surprise.”
Britain’s Jewish community is long established, but tiny as a percentage
of the population, numbering about 300,000. The northwest London suburb
of Golders Green is one of its epicenters, home to kosher restaurants,
Jewish schools and several dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and
Middle Eastern communities.
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared
since the attack by Hamas-led militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7,
2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, according to the Community
Security Trust charity. The group recorded 3,700 incidents in 2025, up
from 1,662 in 2022.
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People look over the area where two people were stabbed in Golders
Green neighbourhood, that has a large Jewish community, in London,
Wednesday, April 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
In October 2025, an attacker drove his car into people gathered
outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur and fatally stabbed one
person. Another person died during the attack after being
inadvertently shot by police.
Iran link to arson attacks under investigation
Since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, there have been a string
of arson attacks on Jewish sites and opponents of the Iranian
government. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in
their 40s, have been arrested and charged over the arsons, which
haven't caused injuries.
Counterterrorism officers are investigating whether the arson
attacks were the work of Iranian proxies. Several have been claimed
online in the name of Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia. Israel's
government has described the group, whose name means the Islamic
Movement of the Companions of the Right, as a recently founded group
with suspected links to “an Iranian proxy” that has also claimed
responsibility for synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
An online claim in the same name also took responsibility for
Wednesday's stabbing. But security experts say the name may be a
flag of convenience rather than a coherent group, and its claims
should be treated with caution.
However, the U.K. has accused Iran of using criminal proxies to
conduct attacks on European soil targeting Iranian opposition media
outlets and the Jewish community. Britain’s MI5 domestic
intelligence service says that more than 20 “potentially lethal”
Iran-backed plots were disrupted in the year ending in October.
Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said that Jews face a
campaign of violence and intimidation and that words of condemnation
are no longer sufficient.
“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every
institution, every community, every leader and every decent person
in our country," he said. “This is a hatred that we must face down
together."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the world must “wake up” to
a rising wave of anti-Jewish hatred.
“In one of the great capital cities of the West, it has become
dangerous to openly walk the streets as a Jew,” Herzog posted on X.
“This is an unacceptable situation.”
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