Three Jewish sites in London have been attacked in less than a week in what counter-terrorism police are now investigating as a concerted, antisemitic campaign against the British Jewish community.

Finchley Reform Synagogue was hit first, on Wednesday, a petrol bomb thrown into the building. On Friday night, a former premises of the Jewish Futures charity in Hendon was targeted.

Unmistakeable pattern

Then on Saturday, Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow was firebombed, a bottle of accelerant hurled through a window into an internal room.

No lives were lost in any of the three incidents, but the pattern is unmistakable. These attacks follow the torching of four Hatzola ambulances in the car park of a Golders Green synagogue in late March.

Responsibility for all of them has been claimed by a group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI).

The group, whose name translates as the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right, emerged online in March and has claimed similar attacks on synagogues in Belgium and the Netherlands, with its statements released on Iranian-aligned Telegram channels within hours of each incident.

Antisemitic motive

In its claim on the Kenton attack, HAYI described the synagogue as a centre of “Zionist influence,” naming its rabbi and chairwoman individually. Targeting places of worship, however, points to a clear antisemitic motive, no matter how it is dressed up.

Counter Terrorism Policing is treating the Iran connection seriously, though it has yet to be proven. Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans told reporters that investigators are exploring whether Iranian state actors are using criminal proxies – what she called “violence as a service” – to carry out the attacks.

MI5 has said publicly it disrupted more than twenty potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in the year to October alone.

Arrests made

Ten arrests have been made across the series of incidents, including two teenagers held in connection with the Kenton attack and a man and woman charged over Finchley. Six men have now been arrested over the ambulance attacks in Golders Green. So far, only two have been named.

The last time there was a sustained campaign of arson attacks on London synagogues, by members of Colin Jordan’s National Socialist Movement in the mid-1960s, members of the 62 Group, who went on to launch Searchlight, were instrumental in identifying and bringing to justice those responsible.

The Community Security Trust recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents across the UK in 2025, the second-highest total in its history.