Speaking at an annual dinner of the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism in the UK, Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley said the Jewish community had in recent years been “increasingly targeted by individuals, groups and hostile states”. <\/p>\n
“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,” he said.<\/p>\n
“None of this is isolated. It is part of a rapidly shifting threat landscape.”<\/p>\n
Speaking at the same event, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the attack on four Jewish community ambulances was “so warped it defies words”.<\/p>\n
She said it was an attack “on this country and on us all”. <\/p>\n
Iran-aligned group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya – The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand – made an unsubstantiated claim of responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel.<\/p>\n
The group has also claimed responsibility for recent incidents in Europe, including an attack on a synagogue in Liege, Belgium, and explosions in the Netherlands targeting a synagogue in Rotterdam and a Jewish school in Amsterdam.<\/p>\n
Sir Mark also outlined additional security measures being put in place, which include 264 extra police officers being deployed to protect the Jewish community in London, alongside “additional highly visible firearms patrols”.<\/p>\n
The investigation is currently being led by counter-terror officers. <\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of Counter Terrorism Policing for the Met, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that these type of incidents had a “huge impact on Jewish communities”. <\/p>\n
He said the Iranian-backed plots disrupted in the UK since October 2024 had included “everything from assassination, to kidnap, to espionage”.<\/p>\n
He said the possibility the attack was backed by Iran is one line of inquiry and police were working to determine the motivation of the attackers. <\/p>\n
Part of the measures used to increase security for the Jewish community include drones, live facial recognition technology, and an increased police presence, Taylor said. <\/p>\n
“We completely understand the concerns within Jewish communities and the fear that this creates, and we are absolutely determined to bring those individuals to justice,” he added. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking at an annual dinner of the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism in the UK,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-492451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}