Essa Suleiman who has been charged with attempted murder over an attack during which two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, in what police are treating as a terrorist incident, sits at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, in London, Britain, May 1, 2026, in this courtroom sketch. Photo: REUTERS/Julia Quenzler

A 45-year-old man appeared in a London court on Friday charged with attempted murder over an attack during which two Jewish men were stabbed in Golders Green, north London, in what police are treating as a terrorist incident.

In its wake, government officials raised the national terrorism threat to its second-highest level, meaning a terrorist attack is highly likely within the next six months.

The stabbings, on Wednesday, followed a spate of incidents targeting Jewish premises in the same area of north London, home to a large Jewish population, prompting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to vow stronger action to protect Jewish people.

Anti-Israel marches – which critics say have encouraged antisemitism – could now face new restrictions amid widespread calls for more protection for Britain’s small Jewish community of about 290,000.

NEXT COURT APPEARANCE ON MAY 15

On Friday, Essa Suleiman appeared at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of the attempted murder of 34-year-old Shloime Rand and 76-year-old Moshe Shine – named in the charges as Norman Shine – and possession of a bladed article in relation to Wednesday’s attack.

Suleiman, a British national who was born in Somalia, was also charged with attempted murder in relation to a separate incident earlier on the same day in south London, when prosecutor Emma Harraway said he had visited a man’s home and allegedly tried to stab him.

He allegedly then traveled to the north of the British capital later that day, she said.

The first victim, Rand, had been studying at a synagogue in Golders Green and was wearing “traditional clothing associated with an Orthodox Jewish man” when Suleiman allegedly ran at him and stabbed him with the knife, Harraway said.

Suleiman then allegedly attacked Shine, also wearing traditional Jewish attire, as he waited at a bus stop, the prosecutor added, before the suspect was arrested by police using a stun gun, Harraway said.

Rand suffered a punctured lung but has since been released from hospital, while Shine suffered a stab wound to his neck, although the wound was not life threatening.

Suleiman, flanked by two security guards, appeared in the dock wearing a grey tracksuit, often stroking his goatee beard, and was remanded in custody until his next appearance at London’s Old Bailey court on May 15.

Speaking only to confirm his name and date of birth, he gave no indication of any pleas to the charges, and the court was told by the prosecution his address was a mental health facility in south London.

STABBINGS RAISE FEARS AMONG JEWS

The incident has taken on a political dimension ahead of local government elections on May 7, which are likely to see Starmer’s Labour Party suffer heavy losses and could even trigger an internal challenge to his leadership.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch both visited the site of the attack to amplify a message, voiced by some in the community, that the government had failed to protect Jews.

Starmer, who has condemned the incident and pledged more funding and tougher legislation, was heckled by a small group of people when he visited, as was London police chief Mark Rowley.

While the recent surge in antisemitic attacks has alarmed the British Jewish community, such incidents have been on the rise over the past couple years, with assailants targeting both Jewish and Israeli targets.

A man who last year tried to enter Israel’s London embassy armed with two knives and carrying a “martyrdom note” was on Friday convicted in a London court of preparing an act of terrorism.

Abdullah Albadri, 34, a failed asylum seeker from Kuwait, attempted to breach the embassy’s perimeter in April 2025 because he wanted to send a message about “the killing of children,” prosecutors said at his trial this month.

Albadri denied charges of preparing an act of terrorism and possession of two bladed articles, telling police he had the knives because he was homeless, but a jury found him guilty on Friday.

Last month, a pro-Iranian group claimed online that it targeted the embassy with drones carrying “dangerous substances.” Police later said they found no hazardous substances.

Albadri was arrested by two armed officers as he tried to scale the fence outside the embassy in west London last April. Prosecutors said he later told police he wanted to send a message about stopping the war, a reference to the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza.

“The prosecution say that Mr .Albadri’s intention was to use or threaten serious violence against the Israeli government, to exact revenge for its alleged murder of children,” Catherine Pattison told jurors at the Old Bailey.

Pattison said Albadri had arrived in Britain via a small boat on two occasions and most recently entered the country in April last year, when he applied for asylum, claiming he faced risks in Kuwait as a human rights activist.

However, exchanges on his phone showed his asylum claim was rejected later that month, after which his intention began to shift to “far more sinister matters” and he started searching for the location of the Israeli embassy, Pattison said.

Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the Israeli embassy has faced a number of security alerts but police “continuously review and strengthen protective security plans to ensure the site and the wider community is kept as safe as possible.”