LONDON — British police said Tuesday that a 17-year-old boy has been charged in connection with a counter-terrorism investigation into an arson attack on a synagogue in north London over the weekend.
The boy, who was charged with arson not endangering life, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court later Tuesday, police said in the statement. UK police announced his arrest, along with that of a 19-year-old male, on Monday.
The incident came amid a spate of arson attacks on Jewish-linked sites, which UK police say have been part of a pattern of incidents perpetrated by “thugs for hire” possibly recruited by Iran-linked terror groups.
In the latest incident late Saturday, a bottle containing “some sort of accelerant” was thrown through a window of Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, northwest London, according to police.
Smoke was seen inside the room, but no injuries were reported, police said.
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“I’m really pleased to say that overnight, we have news of two arrests in relation to that incident, 17- and 19-year-old males,” Matt Jukes, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, had told BBC Radio 4.
London’s Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Matt Jukes (C), deputy assistant commissioner Vicki Evans (L), make a statement to the media, near the Kenton United Synagogue in Harrow, north-west London, on April 19, 2026. (Justin Tallis/AFP)
Jukes noted there have now been 15 arrests following six separate incidents, including against a Jewish-led ambulance service and a Persian-language media outlet.
The newly founded Islamist group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI), or Movement of the Companions of the Right Hand of Islam, which has links to Iran, has claimed responsibility for many of the recent attacks across Europe on American, Israeli and Jewish targets, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
In a statement published on Telegram on Sunday, HAYI said that it had targeted the Kenton United Synagogue because it is “one of the centers of Zionist influence in the British capital.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Sunday to bring the perpetrators of the “abhorrent” recent attacks to justice, as concern over the spate of incidents intensified.
Police stand outside the scene of an antisemitic arson attack in the Golders Green neighborhood of north London, on March 24, 2026. (Henry NICHOLLS / AFP)
The incident came after police arrested two people over a separate arson attack on a synagogue in Finchley on Wednesday.
In late March, four Jewish community ambulances were torched in Golders Green, also in north London.
Monitoring groups have reported an upsurge in antisemitic incidents in Britain, particularly since the start of the Gaza war, which was sparked by Hamas’s terror onslaught in Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Community Security Trust, a British watchdog, recorded 3,700 instances of anti-Jewish hate across the UK last year, a four percent rise over 2024, but down when compared to 2023.
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