A fundraiser set up to secure new, safer premises for a Jewish ambulance service has raised £1.4m after four vehicles were set on fire.The Hatzola ambulances in Golders Green, north-west London, were destroyed in the early hours of Monday.
Four government-loaned ambulances arrived at 1.20pm on Tuesday to replace them, the London Ambulance Service said.After they were parked, Hatzola chairman Shloimie Richman read a statement saying Monday was the “darkest day” in the charity’s existence.Police are treating the arson attack as an antisemitic hate crime. Counter Terrorism Policing officers are leading the investigation, although it has not been declared a terrorist incident, the Metropolitan Police said.
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Golders Green fire: ‘I heard a loud bang from my bedroom’
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Firefighters tackling the blaze in Golders Green. Pic: PA
CCTV shows three people pouring accelerant on the vehicles before setting them on fire and fleeing, the Metropolitan Police said.More than 200 extra officers will be deployed to protect Jewish communities following the attack, the head of UK counter-terrorism policing has said.Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said the Met will use specialist teams including firearms, the mounted branch and drones in the run-up to Passover.A fundraiser on the CharityExtra platform has raised more than £1.4m of its £5m target.
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Police at the scene
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Carcasses of torched vehicles
A post on the fundraising page read: “You’ve seen the scenes. Heard the harrowing reports. Felt the fear.”The hate-filled attack on 4 of our ambulances at our base last night shook us all.”Despite this shocking incident, our mission has not changed. We will continue to save lives.”A separate fundraiser has also been set up to support Hatzola Stamford Hill.
Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI) has claimed responsibility online for the attack.It is a newly formed group believed to be aligned with Iran and appears to have posted a video on Telegram showing a map of the location of the attack and the ambulances on fire.The prime minister has urged communities to “all stand together” in the face of the “horrific antisemitic attack”, while Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called the targeting of the volunteer service “particularly sickening”.
Children stop to look at the wreckage
Children from the local area stop on their way to school to look at the wreckage. One boy climbs to the rooftop of an adjacent car park and leans on his elbows to stare into the vehicles’ hollowed-out carcasses. A man wearing a high-vis vest walks about holding a 3D imaging device. Its head spins continuously as a drawing is formed on an attached screen. He explains the idea is to create a full picture of the impact the fire had on nearby buildings.
Locals have kept their doors and windows shut and few people venture out. One resident of nearby flats reacts angrily to our cameraman telling him journalists are not welcome here and that we should leave.
“Which news organisation are you from,” another man asks. He seems satisfied with my answer but goes on to tell me it was he who was behind “the abuse” of Al Jazeera journalists the day before. “I did that,” he claims proudly, “none of the other press got abuse, the only ones that got chased out were Al Jazeera.” He takes out his phone and shows me a video of himself in a crowd shouting at what he says were an Al Jazeera film crew.
In a community reeling from Sunday’s attack, traffic stops momentarily at the sound of a siren. A police van rolls up to the pavement around the corner from the burnt ambulances and onlookers watch as four officers jump out to surround a motorcyclist. It’s a suspected immigration offence, but van loads of ready officers are providing all the reassurance needed in this nervous community.
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Jewish community in London react to ambulance attack
Attack on Jewish communitySpeaking outside New Scotland Yard on Tuesday, Mr Taylor said: “The Jewish community have put up with a lot of these types of incidents over the last few years, and whilst they’re very strong and resilient, they are clearly very frightened, and we absolutely understand that, and that’s why our counter terrorism officers are now conducting that investigation.”Read more from Jattvibe:British public’s fears of war revealedThe Chinese AI breakthrough scaring Hollywood’Rapid growth of Iranian state threats is grave’The head of the Met Police, Sir Mark Rowley, said on Monday: “Britain’s Jewish community has in recent years been increasingly targeted by individuals, groups and hostile states, intent on spreading fear, hate and harm.”
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The aftermath of the fire in Golders Green
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Protesters rally to ‘stop the hate’ in London
He was speaking at the annual dinner of the Community Security Trust (CST), a charity that monitors antisemitism in the UK, and added: “The rapid growth in recent years of Iranian state threats is grave: hostile state surveillance activity, 20 disrupted plots, and recent attempted attacks on the Iranian diaspora.”On Monday evening, more than 250 people attended a demonstration against antisemitism in Golders Green.
