The Metropolitan Police said the attack in the Golders Green area left two men, ages 34 and 76, hospitalized with knife wounds.
Politicians condemned the stabbings. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain," and called a meeting of the government's emergency committee to discuss the response.
Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley said that it was “another horrendous act of violence directed against our Jewish communities.”
But some British Jews expressed anger at authorities' failure to keep them safe. Rowley faced shouts of “shame on you” and “resign” from bystanders when he made a statement to media at the scene of the stabbings.
The security organization Shomrim said that a suspect “was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public." It said that the suspect was detained by Shomrim members and arrested by police, who used a stun gun on him.
Arson attacks in recent weeks targeted Jewish sites in London, including a charity's ambulances in Golders Green and a synagogue a few miles away.
“It happens in Israel, but happening on our own doorstep, of course it’s shocking,” Golders Green resident Moishe Grunfeld said. “I have kids, I have grandchildren.”
Britain’s Jewish community is long-established, but tiny as a percentage of the population, numbering about 300,000. The northwest London suburb of Golders Green is one of its epicenters, home to kosher restaurants, Jewish schools and several dozen synagogues, as well as large Asian and Middle Eastern communities.
“There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
No one was injured in the arson incidents. Several people, ranging in age from teens to people in their 40s, have been arrested and charged.
Counterterror officers are investigating whether the arson attacks were the work of Iranian proxies.
Britain’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said that Jews face a campaign of violence and intimidation and that words of condemnation are no longer sufficient.
“This must be a moment that demands meaningful action from every institution, every community, every leader and every decent person in our country," he said. “This is a hatred that we must face down together."
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that the world must “wake up” to a rising wave of anti-Jewish hatred.
The number of antisemitic incidents reported across the U.K. has soared since the attack by Hamas-led terrorists on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 which led to the massacre of more than 1200 Israeli men, woman and children.
