4 men plead guilty to torching 4 London-based ambulances operated by Jewish charity

LONDON (AP) — Four men pleaded guilty Friday to destroying four Jewish community ambulances in an arson attack in north London earlier this year that many said was a direct result of the start of the Iran war .

Sentencing will take place in the spring of 2027 at the conclusion of a separate trial involving another man charged in connection with the ambulance attack, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said at London’s Central Criminal Court.

Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, and Saif Ali, both 18, faced a charge of destroying or damaging property and of being reckless as to whether life would be endangered.

The four ambulances torched in the early hours of March 23 were owned by Hatzola, a Jewish volunteer-led charity operating in the Golders Green area of north London. The ambulances each cost around 250,000 pounds ($340,000).

The attack was one of several incidents deemed to have been antisemitic that took place in the weeks after the U.S. and Israel first launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.

Three of the defendants were said to have set fire to the fully stocked vehicles, while a fourth waited in a car. The resulting blaze caused gas canisters inside the…