ByREUTERS

Four young British men pleaded guilty on Friday to charges over an arson attack on community ambulances in London, the first of a spate of incidents targeting the UK's Jewish community earlier this year.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and Saif Ali, 18, appeared at London's Old Bailey court and admitted a charge of destroying or damaging property being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The charges relate to the torching of four ambulances belonging to Jewish volunteer emergency service Hatzalah on March 23 while they were parked near a synagogue, which prosecutors said cost around £1 million ($1.36 million) in total.

Hatzalah is a not-for-profit volunteer emergency service that works alongside Britain's National Health Service and primarily serves the Orthodox Jewish community.

Pro-Iran terror group claimed responsibility for series of arson attacks

Pro-Iranian terrorist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) claimed responsibility for the ambulance attack, which was followed by several other arson incidents in London

Charred remains of ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community organisation, which were set on fire in an incident that the police say is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, in northwest London, Britain, March 23, 2026.
Charred remains of ambulances belonging to Hatzola, a Jewish community organisation, which were set on fire in an incident that the police say is being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, in northwest London, Britain, March 23, 2026. (credit: REUTERS/HANNAH MCKAY)

A synagogue and a former synagogue were targeted, as were Persian-language media organization Iran International and a memorial wall dedicated to people killed in Iran.

British police said at the time that they were investigating possible Iranian links to those arson attacks, with HAYI also having claimed responsibility for some of them.