Four men pleaded guilty Friday to criminal damage charges over the arson attack that destroyed four ambulances belonging to the Jewish Hatzolah charity in London earlier this year, reported euronews.
Three British aged 20, 19, and 18, and an 18-year-old British-Pakistani admitted their involvement in the March 23 attack during a hearing at London's Old Bailey.
The ambulances were set ablaze in Golders Green, an area with a large Jewish population, and were parked near a synagogue. The attack caused an estimated £1 million in damage.
Prosecutors previously described the incident as "a premeditated and targeted attack against the Jewish community." Three of the defendants allegedly started the fires, while the fourth waited nearby in a getaway vehicle.
The arson was among a series of attacks targeting Jewish and Israel-linked sites in London. An Iran-linked organization, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyah (HAYI), had previously claimed responsibility for several attacks, including the destruction of the Hatzolah ambulances. The British government has announced plans to proscribe HAYI, also known as the Islamic Movement of Companions of the Right, as a national security threat.
Defense lawyers have rejected claims that the four defendants had any "terrorism" links to organizations banned in Britain.
The men were remanded in custody and are expected to be sentenced in spring 2027.
A fifth defendant, 18, pleaded not guilty to a charge of assisting an offender. His trial is scheduled to begin at the Old Bailey in January.
The case comes amid a sharp increase in antisemitic incidents in Britain. In late April, two Orthodox Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, prompting the UK to raise its national terrorism threat level from "substantial" to "severe" for the first time in more than four years.
In 2025, Britain recorded the world's highest per-capita rate of violent antisemitic attacks, with 121 severe assaults documented among a Jewish population of approximately 300,000.
(Arutz Sheva-Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)