The suspect in the stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, London, on Wednesday has been identified as a 45-year-old migrant from Somalia.
In what is being treated as a terrorist incident, two men, identified as Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Shine, 76, were stabbed in the Golders Green area of North London. Both suffered injuries, forcing them to be hospitalised; however, both are now said to be in stable condition.
In dramatic scenes plastered across social media, police were filmed using tasers and kicks to incapacitate the suspected knifeman after he apparently attempted to stab officers as well and was suspected of carrying an explosive device, the BBC reported.
On Wednesday evening, the Metropolitan Police identified the suspect as a 45-year-old immigrant from Somalia who has since become a British national. He has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. While police have yet to disclose a motive, Met Police Chief Mark Rowley said that he had “a history of serious violence and mental health issues.”
Police now say they are investigating a third incident that took place in a separate part of London in the south-east earlier the same day, which they believe may have involved the same suspect.
Shortly after the attack, the terror group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), which is said to have ties to the Islamist regime in Iran, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram account.
The group has also claimed responsibility for multiple attacks on Jewish targets throughout Europe since the conflict in Iran began, including on a Jewish ambulance service just yards away from Wednesday’s stabbings.
However, according to The Guardian, investigators have found no evidence of Iranian involvement and therefore believe that the posts may have been opportunistic rather than credible claims.
Nevertheless, the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) force has been tasked with investigating the stabbings as a potential terror attack.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also held an emergency COBR meeting attended by Cabinet Ministers, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, and top members of the Metropolitan Police.
Following the meeting, the Prime Minister said: “I am deeply concerned about the terrorist attack that took place today. This is not an isolated incident. It is the latest in a spate of utterly vile attacks on the Jewish community.”
He added that on Thursday, he will call together various criminal justice agencies to “ensure we have effective and swift justice.”
Yet, it is unclear how much the response from the government will go to quell local anger in Golders Green over the recent spate of attacks on Jews in the area.
During a press conference in the area on Wednesday, Met Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley was heckled by locals who demanded his resignation and shouted “shame on you”. Similar chants were made when Labour MP for Golders Green, Sarah Sackman, attempted to speak.
Attack victim Shloime Rand, who was repeatedly stabbed yesterday, spoke from his hospital bed to broadcaster ITV to say it was a “miracle” he had lived and said the government had let down the Jewish community. He said: “I definitely feel that the government has let us down … If the streets of London are not safe for Jewish people then it’s definitely the government that are able to take care of the problems and they are not doing their job.”
According to data from the Jewish Community Security Trust (CST) charity, there were 3,700 antisemitic incidents in Britain last year, the second highest on record, only behind 2023, which saw a surge in the wake of the October 7th terror attacks on Israel.
Speaking from Golders Green on Wednesday, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice blamed the attack and the rising number of attacks on Jews in Britain on “weak leadership” from the government. He said that a Reform government would ban the anti-Israel “hate marches”, ban the Muslim Brotherhood, and ban Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Tice added that the jail sentence for attackers has to be so long to actually act as a deterrent, and added that “these foreign nationals who are committing these horrific crimes, they have to be deported.”
“I ask a simple question: the alleged attacker, Sir Mark Rowley said, had a history of serious violence and mental illness. [How] on earth is a man like that allowed to roam the streets?”
Overnight, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism Jonathan Hall KC spoke out on the surge in attacks on Jewish communities in recent months. He said: “we’re now in a period of national security emergency. I think 2017 was a massive uptick where everyone around the country felt very unsafe because of what happened in Manchester and London. Now you’ve got repeated attacks against Brits in London, you know, day after day. So I think that we now qualify as an emergency.”
The senior lawyer said that after the 2005 London bombings the government moved decisively to crush the “cause” of terrorism, “Islamist preachers”, and extremist groups, and the government should “go after” the causes of this new spate of attacks today. He identified this as “very, very vicious antisemitism on the streets, probably in homes, probably in certain mosques”.
In separate remarks to Times Radio, Hall said there is an “ambient antisemitism that exists in some parts of the Muslim community” and political leaders weren’t calling that out. He said that while it “pains” him to say so, it appeared the country had got to the point where the frequent anti-Israel, pro-Palestine marches that have been taking place should be banned. He said: “It pains me to say this, but I think we may have reached a point where we need to have a moratorium on the sorts of marches that have been happening.
“It’s clearly impossible at the moment for any of these pro-Palestine marches not to incubate within them some sort of anti-Semitic or demonising language.”
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