Days after two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, on Wednesday, a man has been charged with attempted murder, with police calling the incident a “terrorist attack”, CNN reported.
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The victims, aged 76 and 34, were attacked in the incident. Police said on Friday (local time) that Essa Suleiman was charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a bladed object in a public place.
The 45-year-old, from Camberwell, south London, also faces an additional charge of attempted murder in connection with a separate incident on the same day near Tower Bridge, a few miles away.
He was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, CNN reported.
Two Jews attacked in London
The attack comes amid a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK since the October 7 attacks that prompted Israel’s military response in Gaza.
Both victims were taken to hospital. The 34-year-old man has since been released, while the 76-year-old remains in stable condition, police noted.
The police declared it a terrorist attack
Police have classified the incident as a terrorist attack and a counter-terrorism investigation is underway. Separately, the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center has raised the UK’s threat level from “substantial” to “severe”, meaning an attack is considered “highly likely”.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said he proposed additional resources to protect Jewish communities in London.
In the interview, he warned of a “pandemic of anti-Semitism” and said more needed to be done to address such attitudes in society. He also noted an increase in racist and anti-Semitic hate crimes, adding that some individuals are being encouraged or even paid to carry out acts of violence on behalf of foreign organizations.
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Anti-Semitic attacks in London
The stabbing follows a series of attacks in the UK targeting synagogues and other communal buildings, leaving London’s Jewish community in a heightened state of anxiety.
In early March, arsonists set fire to four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in Golders Green. The police subsequently charged four people. A few weeks later, the former premises of a Jewish charity and a synagogue were targeted in north London.
Earlier this week, a suspected arson attack targeted a memorial wall just a few blocks from the site of Wednesday’s stabbing. On the wall were photos of protesters killed by Iranian security forces during a brutal crackdown earlier this year, as well as images of victims of the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas in southern Israel.
Iran denies participation in the attack
After the incident, there was speculation that Iran was involved in the attack. However, the Iranian embassy in the UK rejected claims of his involvement in “violent activities or incidents in the UK”.
In a post on X, the embassy wrote: “Such baseless allegations… lack credible evidence and appear to serve narrow political agendas.”
‘Deeply disturbing’: UK PM Starmer
Responding to the incident on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “deeply disturbing” in parliament. He added that the country must be “absolutely clear about our commitment to deal with any of these crimes, of which we have seen too many of late”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan described the incident as “appalling” in a post on X, adding that the city had been the target of a series of shocking anti-Semitic attacks.
