The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales in London, UK. Photo: Ben Sutherland / Wikimedia Commons.

Antisemitic violence in London skyrocketed in May, with Israel’s 11-day conflict with Hamas used as pretext to attack Jews in the city, new police data revealed Thursday.

Statistics released by the Metropolitan Police showed 87 incidents of antisemitic violence in May, which was four times higher than any month since 2018, Sky News reported.

Since May 2018, only a handful of months saw more than 20 such incidents.

Chaim Hochhauser of the Shomrim neighborhood watch organization in the heavily-Jewish Stamford Hill neighborhood in north London, said, “During May, the Jewish community in Hackney were the target of many racially motivated attacks.”

“One of these hate crimes targeted over 30 Jewish-owned vehicles whose tires were slashed. This was pure hate crime as only the Jewish cars were targeted,” he said.

“Usually when it flares up in Israel, it flares up here locally,” he stated. “In May we had the Gaza war in Israel, so that is why it has flared up in England.”

Of the May 2021 incidents, 39 were targeted at men and 43 against women.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck of Stamford Hill said, “There needs to be better security provided by the police, particularly for women in the neighborhood.”

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement, “Most recently we have seen incidents of antisemitism within the capital which have understandably caused considerable concern within our Jewish communities.”

“Behavior of this kind and abuse against any individual or group has no place in our city,” police said. “We will not tolerate it and will act quickly and robustly in response to all reported crimes of this nature.”