Teen charged over torching of Jewish ambulance service vehicles

Four ambulances serving a Jewish volunteer emergency service were destroyed in Golders Green, leaving Hatzola Northwest with a crippling blow to its emergency response capacity and sending shock waves through London’s Jewish community. Police treated the blaze as an antisemitic hate crime, and counter-terrorism officers led the investigation after explosions linked to gas canisters tore through the vehicles in the early hours of 23 March.

The attack hit Hatzola Northwest, which operates from the car park of Machzike Hadath Synagogue on Highfield Road in north London. For a volunteer ambulance service, losing four vehicles at once means more than repair bills: it strips away the crews’ immediate ability to answer urgent calls, delays response times and forces a minority community to rely more heavily on stretched mainstream emergency services while its own first-response network is taken out of action. Police said there were no injuries, but nearby flats and the synagogue were also affected by the fire.

The damage was estimated at about £1 million, covering the ambulances and medical equipment inside them. The blaze involved explosions, adding to the scale of destruction and raising alarm beyond the immediate scene in Golders Green. The Metropolitan Police said it was being treated as an antisemitic hate crime, reflecting the way the attack targeted a Jewish institution that exists to provide medical help to the surrounding community.

Subhan Ahmed, 18, of Walthamstow in east London, was charged with assisting an offender after allegations that he arranged to scrap his car to help others avoid arrest or prosecution. The Crown Prosecution Service said it authorized the charge in connection with the arson on 23 March 2026. Ahmed is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 16 June 2026.

He is one of five people now facing charges linked to the incident. Four others, Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named, have already been charged over the arson itself.

The case comes amid a wider climate of concern over threats facing Jewish institutions in Britain. The Community Security Trust said antisemitic incidents reached 3,700 in 2025, a scale that has put synagogues, charities and communal services under sustained pressure. In Golders Green, the attack was not only vandalism or fire damage; it struck at a medical lifeline built to serve one of London’s most vulnerable communities.