Prosecutors told the court there is significant evidence the ambulances were deliberately singled out in a premeditated attack against the Jewish community.
By Shmuli Volkin, Jewish Breaking News
British police have charged Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, and a 17-year-old boy in the torching of four Hatzalah ambulances in Golders Green, a heavily Jewish area of north London.
The vehicles were set on fire in the early hours outside a local synagogue where the volunteer-led ambulance service bases its cars, turning an already shocking antisemitic attack into one of the most disturbing assaults on Jewish communal infrastructure Britain has seen in months.
The blaze triggered explosions from oxygen canisters inside the ambulances, forced the evacuation of nearby homes, and temporarily displaced 34 residents.
No one was injured, but four emergency vehicles were destroyed. Hatzalah remained operational, and the British government said replacement ambulances would be put in place immediately while permanent replacements are funded.
The case is not formally being classified as terrorism at this stage, but it is being handled by Counter Terrorism Policing London and treated as an antisemitic hate crime.
Prosecutors told the court there is significant evidence the ambulances were deliberately singled out in a premeditated attack against the Jewish community.
The three defendants were remanded in custody and are due back at the Old Bailey on April 24.
A fourth suspect was arrested at Westminster Magistrates’ Court while attending the hearing, after officers said they recognized him as allegedly being involved in the attack. Two other men arrested earlier remain on bail.
The wider significance is hard to miss: this was not vandalism, but an alleged strike on Jewish first responders parked beside a synagogue, at a time when British authorities are already stepping up protection around Jewish communities.