A Jewish restaurant was vandalized and the cash register was reportedly stolen in northwest London on Monday amid tensions following the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel.
Footage shows members of the Jewish community outside the restaurant in the Golders Green neighbourhood while police officers patrolled an adjacent street. Graffiti can be seen on a nearby bridge reading: ‘Free Palestine’.
According to London’s Metropolitan Police, officers responded to ‘burglary and damage’ caused to a restaurant in the early morning.
At the time of publication, no arrests have been made in connection with the incident, although a police enquiry is ongoing.
The incident is ‘not being treated as a hate crime’, according to the Metropolitan Police. “I have very close friends who witnessed what happened, they are in deep shock, especially coming at such a moment of terrible vulnerability in our community,” said a member of the local Jewish community. “The London community is definitely not safe.
I think the community does a lot and the government helps us tremendously towards securing our community. However, I think for a long time, none of us have felt so insecure. We feel very unsafe,” he added.
Following the incident in Golders Green, police have increased patrols in several areas of London.
The attack on the Jewish restaurant comes after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, October 7, firing thousands of rockets as militants broke through into Israeli territory as part of what the group described as ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’.
Israel responded with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and issued a formal declaration of war on Hamas, warning residents in Gaza to leave their homes.
Hamas said the operation was due to the long-running Israeli blockade, raids on West Bank cities and other attacks, while Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed ‘mighty vengeance’ on the group.
At the time of publication, over 1,100 have been reported dead across both sides in the most deadly escalation of the ongoing conflict in decades.
