A fifth suspect has been charged in connection with the March arson attack that destroyed four Hatzalah ambulances in the Golders Green neighborhood of north London.

Police identified the suspect as 18-year-old Subhan Ahmed, charged with assisting an offender. Ahmed, of Walthamstow in east London, was charged Monday, and is a British national, police said.

The attack occurred at approximately 1:35 a.m. on March 23, when four ambulances belonging to Hatzalah were set on fire in a shul car park. The blaze caused gas canisters inside the vehicles to explode, producing roughly £1 million in damage, and nearby flats and a shul were also damaged. Prosecutors allege that three people set fire to the fully stocked vehicles while a fourth waited in a blue Toyota Avensis.

Unlike the others, Ahmed was not remanded. He was released ahead of a June 16 court date, and is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court that day.

The four suspects previously charged remain in custody pending a trial scheduled for January 2027. They are Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons because he is under 18. All four were charged with arson, destroying or damaging property, and being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The case is being handled as an antisemitic hate crime. The investigation is led by the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit, and officers are examining claims of responsibility by a group allegedly connected to Iran. At an earlier hearing, prosecutors told the court there was strong evidence the attack was a premeditated and targeted attack against the Jewish community.

The arson was the opening incident in a broader wave of attacks on London’s Jewish community. Subsequent incidents have included incendiary devices placed near shuls and the April stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green. That stabbing was declared a terrorist incident.

The Metropolitan Police reported last week that antisemitic hate crimes in the capital rose 72% in May.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)