Antisemitic assaults in Britain surged by 82% in first six months of 2026 — report

The Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday’s events as they unfold.

Antisemitic incidents in the United Kingdom rose 21 percent in the first six months of 2026 compared to the same period last year, reaching the second-highest total on record for the first half of a year, according to a new report by the Community Security Trust.

The organization recorded 1,926 anti-Jewish hate incidents between January and June, up from 1,598 during the first half of 2025. The total comes out to an average of 321 monthly incidents, nearly double the figure from before October 7, 2023.

Physical attacks rose sharply, with 135 recorded antisemitic assaults, an 82% increase year-over-year. Incidents in schools jumped 59% to 178, while synagogue-related incidents surged by 31%, CST notes.

The most serious incidents included the terror stabbing of two visibly Jewish men in Golders Green on April 29, which fueled 71 further anti-Jewish incidents over the next three days, CST says. The period also saw a series of arson attacks targeting London synagogues and Jewish-linked properties, including the burning of Hatzola ambulances and strikes on multiple synagogues that were linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and claimed by an organization later proscribed by the UK government.

“Thousands of Jewish families living in fear in their own country, and it is completely unacceptable,” says Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp. “Antisemitism has no place in Britain and real action needs to be taken to stamp it out. This is a national emergency.”

Footage shared by Hebrew media shows an antisemitic incident in Bulgaria on Monday night, in which a group of skinheads descended on a hotel in Bansko after learning that a dozen Jewish youths were staying there.

The thugs located the group, who were part of a delegation of Jewish youth group leaders, and threatened them, including with shouts of “Sieg Heil,” according to a report in Israel Hayom.

Police dispatched to the area initially dispersed the neo-Nazi crowd, only for the assailants to return shortly thereafter, the report says.

A mob of neo-Nazi skinheads surrounded a hotel in Sofia, Bulgaria ???????? where a group of Jewish teens from Italy was staying.

The neo-Nazis blocked the exits and tried to break in, chanted Nazi slogans, and made Nazi salutes. The police drove them away, only for them… pic.twitter.com/fAm2cCpW0C

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) August 4, 2026

Senior Hamas member Ghazi Hamad denies that the terror group targeted civilians and children in its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

He makes his claim despite the fact that many of the atrocities were captured on camera by the terrorists themselves, and that Hamas held civilians whom it had kidnapped hostage in the Gaza Strip for years after the assault.

Appearing on the “Piers Morgan Uncensored” program, Hamid asserts that Hamas “never commit crimes; we never kill civilians.”

When pressed about the hundreds of civilians whom Hamas terrorists killed at the Nova music festival and in house-to-house assaults throughout the Gaza border area, Hamad says “maybe some mistakes happened.”

Morgan asks Hamad about the kidnapping of 9-month-old Kfir Bibas. The baby was taken hostage alongside his 4-year-old brother Ariel, and wife Shiri, all of whom were murdered in captivity. His father was also abducted.

The Hamas spokesman responds that, at the beginning of the war, the terrorist group “proposed to release all the civilians, but Israel refused that.”

Israel demanded, on a daily basis, the unconditional release of its hostages, however Hamas insisted on the release of thousands of terror convicts and an end to the war in exchange for returning them. At the time, Hamad himself vowed that the October 7 attack would be “just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth.”

Morgan also asks Hamad why, if Hamas did not target civilians, terrorists gunned down hundreds at a music festival. The terror spokesman says this “was not the plan.”

Then, Hamad cites a Haaretz report from shortly after the attack, that cited an unnamed police source as suggesting that an Israeli military helicopter “apparently harmed a few partygoers who were in the area.” More than 300 Israelis were gunned down by Hamas-led terrorists at the site, amid atrocities including sexual assault.

Asked about the Board of Peace’s disarmament deal, Hamad says that the terrorist organization has agreed to it due to the difficult circumstances in Gaza, but that its “mentality” has not changed, and argues with Morgan when the latter asserts that Israel should not be destroyed.

A soldier at the Hasmonean Brigade’s training base in the Jordan Valley was severely wounded by an apparent accidental discharge this evening.

The IDF says the soldier in training was taken to a hospital in serious condition after being shot, and his family was notified

The Military Police has launched an investigation into the incident, and is probing the possibility that the accidental gunfire was the result of mishandling or playing with a weapon by a soldier.

The IDF says the investigation’s findings will be transferred to the Military Advocate General for review.

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

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