By David Luhnow
An arson attack on four ambulances belonging to a Jewish volunteer service is part of a wider surge in antisemitic incidents since the conflict in Iran began.
Unidentified assailants set fire to the ambulances, several of which had cylinders inside which exploded, police said. The blasts damaged a nearby apartment building and a synagogue, where windows were cracked or blown out. Local police are investigating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime.
Jewish communities worry that the new war in the Middle East will add to a surge in antisemitic incidents that played out around the world during the Gaza war. Just in the past few weeks, Jewish schools and synagogues have been attacked in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Belgium and the Netherlands.
A group calling itself the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right posted footage of an attack on a synagogue in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam and claimed responsibility for that incident as well as an attack on another synagogue in Liege, Belgium, according to the European Jewish Congress, a group representing Jewish communities across Europe.
The previously unknown Islamic organization's name and logo resemble those of Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups and Hezbollah, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank. An Iranian man and a Romanian woman have been charged by U.K. police after they tried to enter Britain's nuclear-submarine facility last week. Police haven't made the nature of the charges public.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 23, 2026 06:48 ET (10:48 GMT)
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